The Tribulations of Stranded Israelis

Lilach traveled to France on June 12, leaving her children with her husband for the first time since they were born to visit family in Paris together with her father. She was expecting to return home on Sunday, three days later. 

On Friday, she woke to reports that Israel had launched preemptive strikes on Iran. 

“When I heard the reports, I was happy and proud. For Israel to reach such capabilities and neutralize the Iranian enemy is something that every Israeli wants. I woke my father up,” she recalled. 

“We began to understand that they were closing Israel’s airspace, but I believed that by Sunday, it would reopen,” Lilach told JNS. 

Lilach’s husband, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command, told her that he had to report for duty and was leaving the children with his parents. 

Lilach’s Sunday flight was canceled. “We started thinking of alternatives. There were talks about rescue flights. I looked into what happened on October 7 and saw that after three or four days, there were flights. I told myself it wouldn’t be long,” she said, referring to the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. 

“I started messaging groups of Israelis stuck in France and understood that there were a lot of us. Rescue flights started, but not all were leaving from France. I found myself in a situation in which my children were without their parents in a time of war. I was sure this would bring me to the top of a priority list and I would be the first one to get on a flight. This didn’t happen,” she added. 

On Saturday, after almost a week, Lilach and her father flew to Paphos, Cyprus. The next day, they intended to fly to Aqaba, Jordan, and cross into Israel by land. 

“Our Aqaba flight was delayed. Five flights from Larnaca to Israel were canceled on the same day. The airport was packed with Israelis who sat on the floor complaining about their canceled flights,” she said. 

“Eventually, we succeeded in getting to Aqaba and crossed over. I almost kissed the floor. I could not believe it was actually happening. I saw the Israeli flag, I saw the soldiers and I started to cry, after 10 days of holding myself back,” she continued. 

When she arrived home, Lilach met her husband, who was home from the army. 

“I looked at my kids and I tried to understand how I found myself in a situation where for a week I didn’t see them, when before the longest we had been separated was half a day. Two days of travel felt like 40 years in the desert,” she told JNS. 

“Young children who grew up in Israel in the last few years are very strong. They are used to air raid sirens.  My children were in good hands with the family and close to a safe room,” she continued. 

“Since October 7, we have witnessed the most terrible events, yet I still feel a lot safer in Israel even at a time when missiles are targeting us,” she added. 

“We found ourselves in a situation where the state couldn’t help, or they took it too lightly. I don’t want to criticize anyone because the security of the citizens who were targeted by Iranian missiles mattered most,” she said. 

“Still, we got to a situation where every citizen had to care for himself, the options were to either take a risk and come through an enemy country or find yourself in limbo,” she continued. 

Orna and Haim, a married couple from Beit She’an in the Jordan Valley, left almost two weeks ago for what they thought was going to be a peaceful holiday in Corfu, Greece, to celebrate Haim’s birthday. 

“We arrived on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, when I realized that war with Iran had started and the skies were closed, our vacation ended,” Orna told JNS. 

“We have family in Israel, children, grandchildren, friends, as well as my 83-year-old mother, who I care for. From that moment, I couldn’t enjoy it,” she added. 

“My kids told me to relax and enjoy, that it’s better this way—but your heart is with your country and your children. You can’t be calm, even if you are in the most beautiful place in the world. You experience what they experience.  With every alarm, your heart jumps, there is panic, fear and worry,” she continued. 

Orna and Haim have four children and eight grandchildren, who live in the center of Israel and who do not all have safe rooms and shelters nearby. 

“You worry that everyone finds a safe place, and it’s very hard. When I was a little girl in the ’70s, we were bombarded with lots of missiles from Jordan. I lived in Beit She’an and seeing videos of the Iranian missiles brought me back to my childhood,” she said. 

On Saturday, an Iranian drone hit a site in Beit She’an 20 meters [65.6 ft] from where Orna used to live as a child. 

“It brought me back. I was terrified, I started crying, I called home to make sure everyone was okay. Miraculously, there was only property damage,” she said. 

As for her return to Israel, Orna said she was confronted with a lot of uncertainty. 

“You try to get answers from the airline and there is no response. They tell you that you need to care for yourself, find yourself a flight because they can’t do anything. You feel helpless because from Corfu there were no flights to Israel,” she said. 

Orna’s children brainstormed and decided to get her and her husband to Eastern Europe and from there back to Israel. 

“We hope everything will go as planned and we will return next week. The prices of the flights are astronomical, a vacation which was supposed to cost 6,000 shekels ($1,765) cost me six times as much. You have to pay for hotel, food, transportation,” she said. 

“I have a cosmetics clinic and I am turning down clients right now. My clinic specializes in relaxing treatments using oils, and a lot of clients wanted to come. My husband also works as a taxi driver,” she added. 

From encounters with people who did not understand that Israel was confronting an existential threat, to her husband dealing with a fever for four days, Orna’s journey abroad was strewn with pitfalls, but also lit with the kindness of Israelis she met on the way. 

“A lot of Israelis who live abroad opened their hearts and their houses to us. One of them, Nehoray, rented us his apartment in Corfu,” she said. 

“The people of Israel are unique and special and that’s how we survive persecution and hardships. We will be strong and the people of Israel will live,” she said.