Flagler professor safe, waiting to be evacuated

By Glenn Judah

Bariaa Shatila, Flagler College Math, Science, and Technology Department chair, is back in her home in Beirut, Lebanon, after evacuating to an U.S. Embassy when Israel bombed the Rafic Hariri airport in Beirut.

Source: CIA Factbook

According to her husband, Imad Shatila, she and her two sons are safe.

“She’s fine,” Imad Shatila said. “They are waiting for evacuation.”

Her husband said that the U.S. Embassy told her to go home and wait to be called to evacuate the country.

“She doesn’t know where or when she will be evacuated to, but told to just stay close to the phone,” he said.

Bariaa Shatila was in Beirut with her two sons visiting family when Israel fired missiles last Wednesday on the country’s only airport.

First Coast News in Jacksonville reported that Bariaa Shatila and her sons were staying just minutes away from the airport in Beirut.

All air traffic out of Lebanon was halted last week when Israel began bombing areas in Beirut in an attempt to push back and end attacks from Hezbollah, a militant Islamic group, who bombed the Israel border and captured two Israeli soldiers.

The Gargoyle will keep this story updated as more information becomes available.