Canadians in Israel say they feel stranded trying to navigate the “nerve-wracking” conflict between Israel and Hamas, spurred by the latter’s surprise attack on Saturday.
Pickering, Ont., resident Ruslan Benco is one such Canadian, alongside his wife and two children who have been visiting family since September.
While the family is in the northern part of the country, which has seen less violent activity with much of Hamas’ attacks focused on the south, Benco said they have been trying to find a flight out of Israel.
In the wake of Saturday’s attack, multiple major airlines including Air Canada have suspended flights into and out of Israel due to the conflict.
Benco said while they were able to secure tickets for next week to Italy, he’s still concerned.
“We don’t know how to get out right now,” he told Global News in an interview. “We found some tickets for next week to Italy just to move away from all the fighting with the kids. But we’re not sure that that’s actually going to come to fruition or whether those tickets are going to be cancelled.”
More than 1,200 people have been killed in the days since the attack with about 900 Israelis dead, according to the government, and the Gaza Ministry of Health reporting that nearly 700 Palestinians have been killed as a result of retaliatory attacks by Israel on Gaza.
Being in the country as war erupts has been “crazy” for Benco, especially with his wife and children there as well, as well as worry for his friends and relatives who are more centrally located and closer to the violence.
“It’s certainly nothing that we’ve experienced home in Canada, all four of us,” he said. “It’s quite nerve-wracking for sure.”
As Benco and his family struggle to find flights, he said he’s also been left unsure what to do next as he felt he hasn’t received much help from the Canadian embassy when his family reached out for assistance.
He said that given the fighting that has continued for three days, he wants the federal government to take more action to assist Canadians.
“Just to understand what should we expect and if we should expect some help or if basically we’re on our own,” he said.
If possible, he’d like to also see if there was any possibility of the Canadian government sorting out evacuation flights.
- Canada Post cracks down on Nunavut loophole to get free Amazon shipping
- Suspect arrested in Brampton for Hardeep Singh Nijjar killing was allegedly one of two gunmen
- How a Montreal woman found her long-lost sister just in time for Mother’s Day
- How the ‘Trump effect’ may influence NATO spending pressure
In a statement to Global News on Sunday, a Global Affairs Canada spokesperson said that Canadian officials have been working “around the clock” to support those impacted and that their missions in Tel Aviv and Ramallah “remained operational through the weekend.”
The spokesperson added the missions would be open on Monday unless security conditions did not allow for it.
On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced there would be a “complete siege” of Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack, with strikes by the country continuing to pound the Gaza Strip and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying they had “only started” its offensive.
“What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations,” Netanyahu said.
The U.S. State Department recently updated its own count to 11 American nationals dead, with an official saying Sunday there was an undetermined number of citizens who remained missing or unaccounted for. At least two Canadians have also been reported missing, with Global Affairs Canada saying officials are aware of reports of one Canadian killed.
Some Canadians in Israel, however, say they don’t plan to leave despite the increasing conflict.
Shye Weinstein of Etobicoke, Ont., moved to the country about six months ago after visiting on a vacation and deciding he wanted to stay.
That feeling hasn’t changed, but he told Global News he’s unsure how to go about processing what he went through.
Weinstein attended the overnight music festival near Israel’s border with Gaza, an event billed as a celebration of “friends, love and peace” that ended in a massacre.
He said he initially had no plans on attending, but made a decision last minute to go with friends and his cousin. He said he had been enjoying himself for several hours until first he heard what sounded like rockets — something he said was not abnormal for Israel — but as he and his friends were packing up they heard what he thought was gunfire.
Gunmen appeared without warning and started firing indiscriminately into the crowd.
The festival was one of the first targets by Hamas as militants launched their unprecedented and coordinated attack on Israel, sending panicked partygoers scrambling in all directions and leaving roughly 260 dead.
The Etobicoke native said he got behind the wheel and got his group to the exit, but found it blocked due to various cars sitting immobile. At one point, he said they got out of their vehicle after police were urging people to do so.
“We run into the middle of the field. Me and my friend, I’m holding her. We cower down,” he said. “My cousin’s girlfriend and another friend are down not far behind us.”
He said his cousin ran back to get the car and drove it to them and they fled the area, but as they did so, he added, they saw people dead in the road.
While Weinstein and his friends and cousin all survived, he said in the days since he’s felt like the experience happened to someone else.
“It felt like I was just watching it all happen. It was from beginning to end, it’s like I wasn’t present,” he said. “I was afraid that if we stopped too long about what to do or where to go, whether or not we should try and slow down or stop or this or that, that we would die for thinking too long.”
Asked how he plans to deal with the ongoing conflict, he said: “I can only go forward and help myself the best I can and be there for my friends and anybody else I can because this is something we all experienced together and now it’s a part of us.”
–with files from Global News’ Sean O’Shea
Comments