166 people arrived in Kazakhstan. Among them are not only our citizens, but also foreigners. They all decided to leave Israel due to the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
Relatives of Kazakhstanis who were returning from Israel gathered in the airport hall. Some have not seen their loved ones for several months.
According to the national air carrier, there were 166 passengers on board, including 124 our compatriots and 42 foreigners. At exactly midnight, the exit from the customs control zone was surrounded by relatives and journalists.
Almaty resident Artur Kovalevsky was the first to pass through passport control. He studied in Petah Tikva. He says there were no military operations in this city, but missiles flew nearby, and the roar of explosions was heard from afar.
“It has never felt like this! A siren sounded, there were rocket attacks, you could hear it all. Everyone was lowered into bomb shelters,” said Artur Kovalevsky.
People in Israel have long been accustomed to an unstable situation. That is why bomb shelters are provided there in all government institutions and in almost every home. Residents know what to do when sirens start wailing, say Kazakhstanis.
“There were sirens and we got scared. They hid in a bomb shelter – they had a room. They hid for about 15-20 minutes, then stopped. It happened two or three times,” said Aigul Abdikerova.
Nurzhan and Said returned from Haifa. There they trained at a large clinic under the Bolashak program. Nurzhan planned to stay in northern Israel for six months, but had to interrupt his practice after three months.
“The edge of the city of Haifa is where the Lebanese border is already located. There really were – had already begun – military clashes, gunshot clashes. Therefore, to be honest, for us it was already a psychological crush. Therefore, we were given the code to enter the bomb shelters in advance. All this was provided by the Israeli government,” said Nurzhan Kainazarov.
Air Astana assured that everyone who wanted to fly to Kazakhstan was taken from Tel Aviv airport. There were two children under two years of age on board and an eight-year-old child who was flying alone.
The crew members were thanked for their decisive actions with applause. Pilots also call this flight very dangerous, but extremely necessary. It took more than a day to prepare.
“As for the people who carried out this flight: pilots, flight attendants. I would like to note the high, let’s say, civic position. That is, people agreed to fly to a not very prosperous region. This was done on a voluntary basis. The services worked out all sorts of non-standard situations or potential delays, flight deviations, and so on,” said Oleg Kolesnikov, chief pilot of Air Astana.
The airline also reported that there are no additional flights planned from Kazakhstan to Israel.
