Stranded Aussies confused by DFAT evacuation procedures

The first mercy flight carrying more than 200 Australians out of Beirut will touch down in Sydney later today.

But there are thousands more still stranded inside the war zone, with many saying they are confused by the Department of Foreign Affairs' evacuation instructions.

Ophelia Haragli is one of the many Aussies still on the ground and she said "it's apocalyptic" there at the moment and people are struggling with the steps they have to follow to get out.

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"I think the DFAT website directions, documents and stuff are not very clear," she said.

"People are having difficulty because they're registering on DFAT, but there's also an extra step that you need to send an email with your passport and how many people are flying and also contact numbers and stuff like that.

"So there's another stage that people just aren't aware of that they need to do before they'll get an email back."

Ophelia said it's all very well to send Australian aircraft over to retrieve stranded families, but it isn't as black and white as DFAT might think.

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"There's other considerations, there was a bombing near the Beirut airport and it's very difficult in real time to get updates to know whether or not there's blockades on the road or there's areas that have been closed off and sealed," she said.

"Still now, I can't get confirmation that the area between the south of Lebanon and Beirut airport is actually open for people to be able to access it."

Hear more from Today's chat with Ophelia in the video above