Here’s how the US has helped a tiny fraction of its citizens evacuate war-torn Lebanon

As bombing intensifies around Beirut, only a tiny fraction of the 86,000 Americans and green card holders who reside in Lebanon have been evacuated with U.S. help.

The State Department says it’s made some 5,000 seats available on both commercial and chartered flights for U.S. citizens, but there’s a catch: they have to get to the airport amid regular bombings on their own, and many may have to leave family behind. 

That’s what’s led to only around a quarter of those seats being filled by 1,100 U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents and family members flying out across 10 U.S.-organized flights, according to advocates.  

Since July, the U.S. has had a level 4 “do not travel” advisory for Lebanon encouraging citizens to get out. 

On Sept. 27, the State Department said it would not be evacuating Americans, prompting airlines to charge exorbitant prices – between $5,000 and $8,000 per seat. The department then back peddled and said it would help organize flights at reasonable rates. 

Some 8,500 U.S. citizens have reached out to the U.S. embassy in Beirut for information and assistance in evacuating. 

“We’re going to continue the flights for the time being because we do assess that there is demand,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. “We believe we have a duty to do everything we can to help American citizens get out of the country.” 

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But human rights attorney Maria Kari says those efforts are futile without a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) to bring in U.S. forces to get Americans out. 

“The writing was on the wall several months ago that the situation in Lebanon was going to start disintegrating,” she told Fox News Digital. 

Kari said many of the U.S. citizens and green card holders in Lebanon she works with have family members who do not hold U.S. passports and refuse to leave the region without a parent or a child. 

“The Beirut embassy has made it very clear they’re not processing any new visa applications,” she said. 

Kari said the U.S. needs to extend the same protections it did to Israeli Americans who were looking to escape the region after Oct. 7 – allow immediate family members of U.S. citizens to get visas.

To the State Department, she said: “You’re not talking about how you’re contributing to the problem of why these flights are not filling up. You’re not talking about how it’s not safe to get to the…