AMID fears of a full-blown war between Israel and the Iran-allied group Hezbollah, the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said the country’s embassy in Lebanon is preparing for a “mass repatriation” of Filipinos in the country.

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Robert Ferrer also renewed government’s appeal to Filipinos in Lebanon to avail themselves of the repatriation program while flights out of Beirut are still available.

“Our embassy is coordinating with the Filipino community to initiate mass repatriation if the need arises,” Ferrer said at a forum as he called on the public to pray for the safety of Filipinos in Lebanon.

On Monday, Balatbat said the embassy has received 1,174 applications for repatriation to Manila since October last year but more than half have decided to withdraw their application.

“We cannot force them to go home if they don’t want to go home,” he said adding Filipino community leaders have also told the embassy most of the Filipinos in Lebanon want to stay.

Last week, DFA Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega acknowledged that most of the around 11,000 Filipinos in Lebanon-opted to stay because of employment opportunities in the Philippines and difficulty of integrating their children into Philippine society, among other reasons.

Alert Level 3 (voluntary repatriation) is still in effect in Lebanon. The alert level was raised by the DFA last year when Hezbollah and Israel traded fire nearly daily, after Hamas fighters attacked the Jewish state, killing more than 1,000 and abducting more than 200 to the Gaza Strip.

Israel has mounted ferocious air, ground and naval counterattacks that have leveled most of the Gaza Strip.

Recently, Israel has signaled its intention to shift focus to Hezbollah after nearly a year of cross-border fire that began when the latter’s fighters lobbed rockets and missiles on the Jewish state’s northern border in support of Hamas which is reeling from the massive Israeli counterattack.