Travellers desperate to flee Israel board planes put of country

Race to escape Israel: Panic at the airport as travellers desperate to flee war ditch luggage and race to board planes out of the country – as rockets come down nearby

• Hundreds have been trying to flee Israel via its airports
• But dozens of departures have been cancelled following the surge of violence
• Are you trying to leave Israel? Email: [email protected]

Hundreds of people are currently trying to flee Israel have been held up by rockets coming down near the country’s main airport, as the third day of violence in the region gets well underway. 

Over 700 Israelis who have been killed since Hamas launched its large-scale attack over the weekend, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said on Monday, while another 1,200 people have been wounded, many critically. 

Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel’s main international gateway, was packed out by travellers trying to leave the country on Monday. 

But departure boards at the airport, which last year saw over 20 million passengers on 143,000 international and domestic flights, were glowing red as flight after flight was cancelled by aviation authorities. 

Hundreds of anxious travellers were seen with their heads in their hands as they wracked their brains to figure out how to leave Israel. 

One man was told by an airport official to ‘leave everything’ after a siren went off in Ben-Gurion airport

Hundreds of people have been flown out of Israel by concerned governments

Smoke was seen rising through the air near the carpark at Ben-Gurion Airport

The delays come hours after a rocket salvo in the Tel Aviv area landed near Ben-Gurion Airport. 

Video circulated online appeared to show smoke rising from Ben-Gurion, near the airport’s carpark. 

A spokesperson for the Israel Airports Authority said there had been a mid-air rocket interception and a possible impact in a nearby village. 

They added that there were no impacts at the airport itself. 

One man who took a video that was shared to a Telegram page revealed the panic in Ben-Gurion Airport. 

He said to the camera: ‘Guys, I don’t know what’s going on here. It’s crazy.’ 

Anxious travellers were left unsure of how they were going to leave Israel

Departure boards at the international gateway shows dozens of flights out of Israel had been cancelled

Hundreds were left to their own devices as flight after flight from Ben-Gurion was cancelled

Sirens wailed overhead as travellers were told to move to a nearby bomb shelter after a rocket crashed near the airport

Many countries around the world have made efforts to take their citizens out of Israel

Sirens wailed overhead as travellers were told to move to a nearby bomb shelter. 

A security guard was heard telling him: ‘Move, leave everything.’

The airport is also home to a centre for missing persons and abductees, in the wake of mass civilian deaths and kidnappings at the hands of Hamas forces. 

Police were seen carting out evidence boxes by the dozen. 

One officer was seen comforting a woman just outside the centre.  

Many countries around the world have made efforts to take their citizens out of Israel. 

Spaniards were repatriated from Israel hours after its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas. 170 passengers arrived in Barajas Airport in Madrid on Monday. 

Over in Bulgaria, dozens were seen leaving Sofia International Airport after being repatriated from Israel by the government.

Thailand’s prime minister Srettha Thavisin also has ordered preparations to fly Thai nationals out of Israel, after Two Thai nationals were killed, eight injured and 11 captured in the weekend violence. 

This morning, Israel’s defence minister ordered a ‘complete siege’ on the Palestinian exclave while the country is still scouring areas in the south for Hamas attackers.

The airport is also home to a centre for missing persons and abductees

Police officers carted boxes of evidence out of the centre

One woman was comforted by a police officer outside the centre

Minister Yoav Gallant added that authorities will cut electricity to the bordered area and will block the entry of food and fuel to the region.

The announcement comes as Israel’s military scoured the country’s south for Hamas attackers and guarded breaches in its border fence with tanks, while it relentlessly pounded the Gaza Strip in the early hours of this morning, with air strikes and artillery hitting more than 1,000 targets belonging to Hamas overnight.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and buildings were reduced to rubble after Israel began its deadly revenge attack in response to Hamas launching a surprise assault that has so far killed more than 700 Israelis and injured 1,200.

The Israeli airstrikes have so far flattened much of the town of Beit Hanoun in the Palestinian enclave’s north-east corner, which Hamas terrorists had been using as a staging ground for their attacks.

On the ground, thousands of Israeli soldiers are preparing to launch a massive ground assault within the ‘next 48 hours’ to destroy Hamas fighters and infrastructure in Gaza that will see fighting erupt in the streets, US officials say.

Hundreds of Spanish travellers were taken back from Israel by Spain’s government

Many countries across the world have deployed planes to repatriate their citizens

170 passengers arrived in Barajas Airport in Madrid on Monday

Israel has so far brought in special forces to try and wrest control of four sites from Hamas fighters in the south of the country.

Israel’s Defence Forces have said they want to completely strip Hamas of its power to govern in Palestine after what has been described as the country’s ‘worst day in history’ with the number of Israeli’s killed in the conflict set to rise further.

And today, Israel’s army said its forces were in ‘full control of communities’ in its southern territory near Gaza – hours after it said it was fighting Hamas terrorists in ‘seven to eight’ locations in the south.

‘We are in full control of the communities,’ military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists, adding however that there still might be ‘terrorists’ in the area.

Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said he believed around 1,000 Palestinian gunmen were involved in the unprecedented attack on Israel on Sunday, which he called ‘by far the worst day in Israeli history’.

Over in Bulgaria, dozens were seen leaving Sofia International Airport after being repatriated from Israel

‘Never before have so many Israelis been killed by one single thing, let alone enemy activity in one day,’ he said, adding that the current death toll of 700 is expected to rise as more than 1,000 Israeli’s are injured, some critically. 

Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Hamas on Saturday and sent a wave of fighters who gunned down hundreds of civilians in cold blood and took at least 100 hostages in a huge co-ordinated attack that took Israel by surprise.

The terrorists massacred 260 Israeli revellers at a festival in a hail of bullets, with survivors describing how the gunmen went ‘tree by tree’ executing victims.

Survivors of the attack posted clips of the ordeal to social media, showing how they were forced to hide under bushes and record hushed farewell messages to their loved ones as they watched victims get killed one by one.

Many lay still in sheer terror for more than five hours before they heard the sound of armed rescuers speaking in Hebrew.

The Palestinian terrorist group stormed the Supernova Festival that had been taking place near Kibbutz Re’im, close to the Gaza Strip, as part of its surprise assault launched on Saturday.

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