The plane taxis onto the runway, accelerates and takes off. It keeps rising higher and higher. Only here, high above Israel, Tilman allows himself the freedom to let himself be exhausted. The passengers on board are tense but attentive. A sense of community is created. Twenty minutes later, he says, the airport came under fire. Explosions from the missile defense system echoed through Tel Aviv.
But by then Tilman and the plane were already out of firing range. The 31-year-old originally wanted to stay in Israel for ten months and participate in a leadership program there. Together with five other Germans and six Israelis, he would be housed in a student dormitory in Jaffa, a district of Tel Aviv. Unlike German dormitories, this one is equipped with bomb-proof apartments.
Because tensions always arise in the powder keg of the Middle East. The course would start in mid-October. Tilman traveled to Israel with his girlfriend a little earlier so that they could go on holiday together again before rarely seeing each other for ten months.
«We were traveling in Tel Aviv. The people there are extremely nice and open,” says Tilman about his first impressions. Then they both got very sick. Instead of exploring Tel Aviv, they were down. Then chaos broke out Saturday morning.
Awakened by the air raid siren in Tel Aviv
Air warning. He and his girlfriend sleepily closed the windows and entered the windowless, hopefully bomb-proof kitchen and waited. Tilman says he didn’t think much about it at the time; after all, he had expected that such alarms might occur from time to time. Added to this was the illness that still sapped his strength. After a while there was peace and they could go back to bed.
Until a few hours later the sirens sounded again. Tilman and his girlfriend withdrew from the window again – and waited. “I started checking the news to find out what was going on,” he says. Then it slowly dawned on him: “What is happening here is not good.”
And then came the third alarm. Tilman and his girlfriend were now aware that thousands of rockets had been fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip that night. In the bomb-proof kitchen, the two had breakfast with an Israeli student and talked about the situation. They repeatedly heard the paired blasts of the missile defense systems. “It gave me a shock,” Tilman admits.
He knows that extreme situations are real and happening to him in the moment, but the emotional reaction to them usually comes later. This time it would take a while before Tilman could say goodbye to tension mode and let his emotions flow.
The first flights were cancelled
On Saturday afternoon it was not yet clear that Tilman would actually fly out, that the course in which he was to participate would not take place. The situation was different with his girlfriend. Their flight left early in the morning the next day – because they did not know how the situation would develop, they left for the airport early in the evening. To Tilman’s surprise, taxis were driving by.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has provided the first information to citizens who are in Israel. There is no mention of evacuations in the initial emails (which Watson does have). Instead, there was general information about security measures in Israel – and references to scheduled flights that are still flying.
The foundation through which Tilman was in Israel gave him the green light to leave on his own initiative. However, it was first advised to wait and see how the situation would develop. The announcement was that students were initially required to stay in the gated area of their dormitory; with the bombproof rooms they would be safe there.
Tilman had thought back and forth: a hasty departure would have placed a great financial burden on him as a student. In the end all his considerations were in vain. His girlfriend’s flight was postponed and eventually canceled. The next, possibly free flight would not have departed until the following afternoon. So a night at the airport. And this while both were still in poor health. While they waited, the two had to flee into the airport stairwell due to an alarm.
Tilman went into planning mode with his girlfriend. Panic, weakness, emotionality: there was no time for that. “If we had spent the night at the airport, we would have been really sick the next day,” he says. During a lull in the shelling, the two drove back to the dormitory and slept away. There, Tilman says, they at least had a safe place.
The next morning, Tilman had a phone call with the other program participants and the organizers. The first Israeli in the class has already been drafted and almost everyone has reported missing friends and dead people. The war was suddenly very close. “My friend called this moment surreal: we really wanted to leave, the Israelis really wanted to fight for their country.”says Tilman.
Free seats on airplanes are rare
On Sunday evening, the foundation also gave the financial green light: Nothing stood in the way of leaving. Theoretically. Finding a flight is almost impossible.
There was still no offer of evacuation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Instead, the tip is not just looking for direct scheduled connections to Germany. A tip that makes Tilman angry. He felt ripped off, he says. To leave. “As if we hadn’t already come up with the idea of looking for a flight that could take us – anywhere –,” he complains.
The State Department, Tilman says, didn’t help at all. It wasn’t until Tuesday afternoon that an email arrived offering an evacuation by bus to Amman airport in Jordan. On Thursday, five days after the outbreak of war, Germany began evacuating by plane.
In response to Watson’s question, the Foreign Ministry said: Together with the embassy in Tel Aviv, they are in close contact with the Israeli authorities and with German nationals who are in Israel. They would advise on exit options and routes. In addition to the Lufthansa flights on Thursday, a ferry to Cyprus has now been organized.
Finally we managed to book a flight to Turkey. Early Tuesday morning, Tilman and his girlfriend left for the airport. Her flight to Turkey had already been canceled that night, but it was clear to her that she would now wait at the airport until she could board the plane.
What Tilman remembers when he thinks about the airport: red eyes. Overwhelmed by exhaustion, fear, tears. But don’t panic, the atmosphere at the airport was very calm. Rebooking at the counter was not possible because there were no more seats. Tilman and his girlfriend then searched on the Internet: a flight with Turkish Airlines on Friday. Tilman struck in the hope that one would come sooner.
And then an unexpected door actually opened for the two Germans: a flight that, according to Tilman, had not previously been on the flight board. To Izmir on Tuesday afternoon for 800 euros per person. They struck. The next day we returned to Germany from Izmir via Antalya.
When he got home, Tilman is said to have been the first to stand in the living room. Overwhelmed by the effort of the past few days, by the experiences and by the certainty that his dream of a year abroad in Israel is now buried. He would have thought with shame of those who remained in the country and their incredible suffering.
Then he would have taken the liberty of looking out the window and crying.
Soource :Watson
I am Amelia James, a passionate journalist with a deep-rooted interest in current affairs. I have more than five years of experience in the media industry, working both as an author and editor for 24 Instant News. My main focus lies in international news, particularly regional conflicts and political issues around the world.
