Companies are charging between $1,400 to $2,300 to flee Lebanon on a yacht

BEIRUT — Torn for days between deciding to stay or leave, Abby*, an American who had been living and working in Lebanon since 2019, finally made the tough choice to get on a yacht bound for Cyprus, for which she paid $1,400. Along with fourteen other passengers, including some fleeing Beirut’s southern suburb and the war-ravaged south, she boarded a Princess 62 yacht on Sept. 30. A rather unusual way to flee the massive Israeli bombardments raining down on Lebanon, which, along with the ground offensive underway since Oct. 1, have already displaced over a million in the country, killed over 2,000, and forced many residents to seek refuge outside Lebanese territories.Thousands have already escaped by car or bus to Syria and Jordan, while multiple embassies have taken measures to evacuate their expats, and the country's sole remaining...