Today, Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly stated that only half of the Canadians in Lebanon whom her ministry contacted, offering them seats on commercial flights to leave the country, accepted the offer.

Joly explained to reporters in Parliament that the Global Affairs Ministry, which includes the Foreign Ministry, reached out to 1,700 people who sought more information about flights leaving Lebanon.

“Only 50% of them accepted the offer,” Joly said, adding that more than 4,000 people contacted Global Affairs for information on how to take one of those flights.

Last Friday, Joly announced that the Canadian Global Affairs Ministry started reserving groups of seats on commercial flights from Beirut to facilitate the departure of Canadians from Lebanon.

Today, Joly said that her ministry managed to evacuate 200 Canadians from Lebanon over the weekend and that another 200 would be leaving Beirut for Istanbul later today.

She clarified that the government secured 600 seats on flights departing from Beirut to Istanbul and is looking for more. She urged anyone offered a seat on a flight departing from Beirut to accept it without hesitation.

According to official figures, there are 20,323 Canadians in Lebanon registered with the Canadian embassy. Since registration is not mandatory, the actual number is likely much higher.

Ten days ago, Joly stated that about 45,000 Canadians were still in Lebanon, despite repeated calls from the Canadian government for them to leave Lebanon since the outbreak of hostilities between the Lebanese "Hezbollah" organization and Israel in October 2023 along the Lebanese-Israeli border.