The Palestinian flag and the flag of Hezbollah wave in the wind on a pole as peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol the border area between Lebanon and Israel in the Khiyam area of southern Lebanon on October 13, 2023 ( AFP / Joseph EID)

Claims of US embassy closure in Lebanon are false

  • This article is more than one year old.
  • Published on October 17, 2023 at 18:49
  • 3 min read
  • By Bill MCCARTHY, AFP USA
The US embassy in Beirut has remained open even as Israel's war with Hamas threatens to spill over into Lebanon, despite false reports on social media that the diplomatic compound had closed. Cross-border shelling has claimed lives on both sides, but the embassy said in an October 11, 2023 statement that it had not ordered an evacuation.

"The American embassy in Lebanon is being evacuated. American citizens are advised to leave the country as soon as possible," says an October 11, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The post comes from "Sprinter," an account that has previously shared misinformation under different variations of the same alias.

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Screenshot from X, formerly known as Twitter, taken October 16, 2023

Similar claims spread across X and other platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, in several languages.

The rumors took off as tensions escalated at Israel's northern border with Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement signaled that it could increase its military involvement in support of Hamas.

The Palestinian militant group attacked Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking some 199 hostages in the worst assault in the country's history. Israel's retaliatory air strikes have killed at least 2,750 people and leveled neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, the densely populated, impoverished territory governed by Hamas that has been under a blockade for years.

Aid agencies on October 16 called for Israel to allow vital humanitarian supplies into Gaza, where millions of people have been cut off from water, food and fuel. Israel, meanwhile, has requested some 1.1 million Gazans to move south in preparation for a ground offensive against Hamas.

Israel has also started evacuating residents along its northern border, where at least two people in the country and 11 in Lebanon have been killed in skirmishes -- including a Reuters journalist.

But the US embassy there has refuted reports that it is advising Americans to leave.

"The US Embassy in Beirut has not evacuated and is open and operating normally. Reports saying otherwise are false," the embassy said in a statement posted October 11 to X and Facebook (archived here and here).

The statement links to an October 10 message (archived here) telling US citizens in the region to "take caution" by avoiding demonstrations, monitoring the news and enrolling in a program to help the embassy locate them in case of an emergency.

A security alert the previous day said citizens who wish to leave the region and can do so safely should verify flights with nearby airports and keep tabs on border crossings.

AFP reached out to the embassy for additional comment, but no response was forthcoming. The State Department referred to the embassy's statement and security alert.

Some social media users who amplified the false rumor have since posted corrections.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war here.

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