I have a life here: British woman resists calls to flee Lebanon despite tensions

The British Embassy in Lebanon has been urging British nationals in the country to leave.

The British Embassy in Lebanon has been urging British nationals such as Navana Mayhew to leave the country (Navana Mayhew/PA)

A British woman in Lebanon resisting calls for UK citizens to flee the country has said she is “not scared” of the possibility of war despite rising tensions.

The British Embassy in Lebanon has been urging British nationals in the country to leave “while commercial travel options remain available” amid growing attacks between Hezbollah and Israel.

Navana Mayhew, 33, from Colchester in Essex but based in Beirut, told the PA news agency she has no plans to leave.

“I understand what the embassy is saying – of course we should take precautions, we should have plans – but I have a job here, I have a life here, it’s too much just to put up and go,” she said.

Ms Mayhew, who moved to the country four years ago and lives in Beirut with her two young sons and Lebanese husband, argued Lebanese citizens in Beirut are unafraid of war reaching the capital.

The debt adviser said: “I have a job here, my child goes to school here and my youngest, he’s going to nursery.

“I’m a member with Middle East Airlines, that’s the main operating airline here, and I’m in contact with them – if they were ever going to shut flights, they would soon let us all know.

“I’ve lived here now for four years, and I have friends here who have lived here longer. They’re other British expats, and they have no fear. They haven’t left either.”

Her family in the UK are concerned but she argued that she knows the country well and added: “I’m not scared at all.”

Ms Maythew said one of her sons, Markus, four, holds a British passport but she has not yet organised one for five-month-old Lukus. It can take up to 12 weeks according to the British government’s website.

She said it is a “concern” that she does not have a passport for her son yet and she has contacted the embassy about the issue.

Ms Mayhew heard a sonic boom for the first time in early August as Israeli military aircraft flew at high speeds low over the Lebanese capital.

“Israel was doing sonic booms around Beirut, and they were weird to me but everyone, the Lebanese citizens of Beirut, they’re so used to it, they didn’t care,” she said.

“In my four years of being here and my seven years of visiting Lebanon, I’ve never heard sonic booms and one went right past our house, and it was like an explosion.

“I ran to the balcony and I told my eldest son to get under the bed because I just didn’t know what it was, and it was nothing.

“I was like, what the hell was that, and I remember calling my husband, and saying, what’s going on and he was at work. He was in downtown Beirut, and he heard them, and said it’s nothing to worry about.”

Ms Mayhew said she felt “sad” for people living in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been exchanging near-daily fire with Hezbollah since clashes along the border began on October 8.

“But we’re fine, and no one seems to care here in Beirut, no one seems to worry about it, no one seems to give it a second thought,” she added.

“When you live around that for so long, you adapt to this feeling.”

The British Embassy in Lebanon has said: “We advise against all travel to the whole of Lebanon.

“If you’re a British national in Lebanon, we encourage you to leave now, while commercial travel options remain available.”