CNN
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When Ben Obadiah heard that Hamas militants had attacked a music festival his family was attending, he recited the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, for his mother.
“I didn’t know what to do. I said please kill me because it’s better than being kidnapped,” Obadiah, 38, told CNN on Wednesday. “It’s a nightmare. I said, ‘Please kill her, please don’t take her.'”
He watched helplessly through WhatsApp as his mother and brother sent updates for eight hours, hiding in a small bush, hearing gunshots and people walking by saying “Allah Akbar”. I told him that I was there.
“It took about two minutes for[all the messages]to arrive, and there was no communication during that time,” he said. “Every two minutes, you’re tearing your hair out to get answers.”
Eventually, Ovadia hears of a safe place, sends a map to his brother, and manages to escape from the festival.
The next morning, Ovadia flies from London to Israel, where he lives with his British wife and nine-year-old twins and works as a jeweller.
he is one of them many Israelis return home from abroad as the long-running conflict between Israel and Hamas escalates into a war on a scale not seen in a generation. To meet increased demand, Israeli airlines El Al, Israel Airlines and Arkia Airlines added flights to repatriate reservists on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Israelis who take short vacations or are exiled from their daily lives abroad are bringing back supplies in preparation for call-up to the reserves, or returning for funerals to protect their communities. .
At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel in a deadly and brutal Hamas attack on October 7, when Hamas militants breached the heavily fortified border from Gaza, leaving behind atrocities. It was done.
Israel responded by bombing the Gaza Strip and cutting off electricity, food, water and fuel supplies to the Palestinian enclave. At least 1,354 people have died in Gaza in recent days, and the enclave’s only power plant ran out of fuel on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Immediately after arriving in Israel and meeting his family, Obadiah headed to Lod, a city about nine miles southeast of Tel Aviv. Violence has erupted there before.
So he teamed up with friends to form an impromptu neighborhood watch group to keep the situation calm. Since then, he has been planning to drive to the south of the country to help deliver donated food and transport people to his families due to a shortage of drivers.
“At least there’s something I can do,” he said. “I couldn’t just stay in London and watch what was happening on TV.”
Another returning Israeli is Guy, 30, who works in the cybersecurity field and has lived in London for the past five years. CNN is not using his last name for security reasons. Guy returned to Israel on Wednesday after learning that six of his friends had gone missing after attending the Supernova music festival. Two members of the group were later confirmed dead.
polite man
Guy, who lives in London, returns to Israel to join the reservists, but also attends the funeral of a friend who died during the Supernova Festival.
He told CNN he was returning to serve as a reservist and to attend the funeral of a friend who was part of his “close circle” who often went to trance music festivals such as Supernova with Palestinians.
“The generation born after the Yom Kippur War has never seen anything like this,” he says. “They have had the opportunity to believe in peace and a two-state solution…We have grown up believing in that…The people who attend these festivals are basically citizens of the world who just want to celebrate life. I am participating as a member.”
Israel has called up 300,000 reservists to fight for its military, Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Maj. Doron Szpilman told CNN on Wednesday, even though Israel has a relatively small population of 9.7 people. Despite this, he said it was a mobilization on the same scale as a major country like the United States. According to April data from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, the number is 1 million.
“There’s not a family that doesn’t have someone called up. Or, unfortunately, we’re a very small country and families don’t have friends and their loved ones are still missing,” Spielman told CNN.
With some exceptions, all Israeli citizens over the age of 18 are required to serve in the IDF. After completing their service, many go on extended trips abroad as a kind of post-service rite of passage.
ben
Ben, 22, was on his way to trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal when the attack occurred. He returned from Kathmandu on Tuesday.
After completing his military service, 22-year-old Ben asked to keep his last name confidential and planned to explore Asia for several months. But he abandoned that plan on Saturday when he learned of the Hamas attack while in a mountain village in Nepal. He has since returned to Israel and is on standby as a reserve member of the reconnaissance unit.
In a phone call from Nepal on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s flight, Ben said he believed there were more than 100 Israelis in Kathmandu alone trying to return home.
“It’s really hard being this far away and there’s not much you can do,” he says. “I’m worried about the people there and all I do is watch the news or look at my phone all day. It’s impossible to leave right now.”
ilan fischer
Ilan Fischer was flying back to Israel from Australia, where he had been attending a friend’s wedding, to join the military as a reservist.
Ilan Fischer, 29, is also an Israeli national who will be called up to the reserves, he told CNN on Wednesday. On the day of the Hamas attack, he was on vacation in Melbourne, Australia, attending the wedding of two close Australian friends who also live in Israel.
Fisher had multiple offers to remain in Melbourne, but intends to fly home on Sunday and hopes to be re-enlisted into the Army’s media wing.
“Given the current situation on the ground, how dire it is and how dire it will be in the future, we have no choice but to go back,” he said.
Some Israelis rush back home for other reasons. Rachel Gold, 27, was on vacation in Toronto when she and her friend Jessica Kane, who were visiting her parents in New York, came up with the idea to bring the supplies back to Israel.
Provided by Jessica Kane
Jessica Cain and Rachel Gold flew back to Israel from the United States, where friends and relatives helped collect donations from the Jewish community.
After a social media appeal, they raised $15,000 to buy supplies and, with 13 large check-in cases, four carry-ons and several backpacks, joined two other friends on Monday. I flew back home in the evening. The luggage was packed with essentials such as a head torch, flashlight, underwear, socks, toothbrush, portable charger, hydration pouch, and protein bars.
Kane, 26, told CNN that his family is religiously observant and did not know about the attack until his father, who was at the synagogue, learned about it through word of mouth.
“I couldn’t believe it at first. I thought it was being sensationalized,” she said. “We immediately made phone calls. We had several missed calls from the military and a million emergency alert notifications about falling missiles. It was incredibly, incredibly difficult. .”
Provided by Jessica Kane
Kane and her friends had 13 check-in cases and luggage full of toiletries and other donations.
The friends were met at the airport by volunteers on Tuesday, who immediately took the donations and delivered them to southern Israel. Mr. Gold is currently drafted into the military reserve and is stationed at a military base in the south.
“I feel much safer here than I do when I’m away,” she told CNN. “I felt really helpless just watching the news at home and thinking about what else I could do other than send money. Being here makes me feel like at least I’m a part of it, taking action and doing things. And you’re not glued to the news all day. It’s a little less scary here than it is abroad.”
