The Christian group IKAJ (International Christian Embassy Jerusalem) is in Israel in connection with the Løvhyttefesten holiday. All 71 who took part in the trip should now be at home in Norway.
On Monday, it looked like they were going to get home during the evening. However, it did not turn out that way. Now the plan is to take a flight from Israel on Tuesday afternoon.
Nettavisen gets in touch with tour guide Bjarte Ystebø on Tuesday morning. The group is located in the city of Netanya, just north of Tel Aviv on Israel’s west coast.
He describes a chaotic situation in the war-torn area.
– We are surprised that the Norwegian authorities do not want to help, when we experience the situation as so dramatic. The advice they have given us to try to travel by scheduled flight is completely unrealistic. It could take weeks in that case. It is now that the rockets are raining down on us, says Ystebø.
In the traveling party, there are Norwegians of all ages: from young children aged 2 to the oldest aged 87. The group can hear the bangs in the distance from where they are staying, says Ystebø.
Panic incident at the airport
On Monday afternoon, the tour group was to charter a flight from Israel to Norway. Then the flight was cancelled, confirms Ystebø. He says that the atmosphere among the Norwegians stranded in Israel is tense.
– There are several children in the traveling party. They are scared, but the parents do a good job of distracting them.
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There was, among other things, a situation at the airport in Tel Aviv on Monday, when some Israeli guards allegedly stormed out of the building.
– Panic broke out and people began to evacuate, says Ystebø.
There are a total of 190 Norwegians who will take off from an airport in Israel at five o’clock this afternoon. The group is optimistic, and trusts that ongoing security assessments will be carried out, says Ystebø.
After driving through the Negev desert by bus, the traveling party has arrived at the airport in Israel, writes Ystebø to Nettavisen in an update at 12.
– Of course, unforeseen things can still occur, but we now believe that we will get home tonight, says Ystebø.
– Left to themselves
No one in the group understood how dramatic the situation was when they woke up on Saturday morning.
– But it wasn’t long before we started thinking about the return journey. More and more airlines canceled. We were to split between Norwegian and a Polish airline. These flights were also cancelled, says Ystebø.
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Now the group has obtained a charter plane. Yesterday they posted a message on Facebook and asked if more Norwegians would like to join. It turned out to be about so many people that not everyone gets to go home.
– It is very hard to have to say no to people. They are left to themselves. It feels dramatic to be here and not have a way out, says Ystebø.
The children are waiting at home
Bjarte and Linda’s children are waiting for their parents at home in Norway. They are anxious for mum and dad, but have been told that everything will be alright in the end.
– Now we are very much looking forward to coming home to Norway and Bergen again. It will be a nice moment, says Ystebø.
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He is unsure when they will travel down to Israel again. But he is absolutely sure of one thing:
– This is pure terror, what Hamas has done against Israel and its own people. We also sympathize with the situation for the situation of those living in Gaza, says Ystebø, who hopes to soon be home from his eighth and most dramatic trip to Israel.
Hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian civilians have been killed in ongoing rocket attacks against each other, state health authorities in both countries.
Sending military aircraft
While the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoD) in Norway does nothing to help Norwegians out of Israel, Spain reports that they are preparing military planes to evacuate Spaniards out of the country, for those who want it.
“Norwegian authorities have very limited opportunities to assist Norwegian citizens in Israel”.
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This was written by Tuva Bogsnes, head of communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an e-mail to Nettavisen on Monday evening.
Nettavisen has repeatedly asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs what they mean by “very limited funds to help Norwegian citizens home” from the war zone.
They have not responded to that.
2023-10-10 09:12:20
#Stranded #Israel #pure #terror
