Former National Party leader and Reserve Bank governor Don Brash and partner Margaret Murray-Benge, a long-serving district councillor, were driven in the middle of the night past military trucks to a “chaotic” Tel Aviv airport, fearing it could be bombed.
Fighting erupted between Israel and Hamas on Saturday. The war began after Hamas militants launched a surprise attack in Israel, which declared war and began its retaliation. More than 1800 lives have already been claimed on both sides.
Murray-Benge, a Western Bay of Plenty District Council representative, said she and Brash were on the last leg of their 28-day tour through Egypt, Jordan and Israel.
She described the trip as a “lifetime experience”.
The Tauranga couple arrived in Israel on October 2 and stayed at a hotel in Haifa with their tour group. The hotel had signs pointing to a “safe room”, which she believed was a permanent fixture.
When the conflict broke out, the tour guide reassured them it would likely just last for 24 hours, but two young women in their group panicked and one left the country immediately.
“After 24 hours, it was quite clear that it was a whole lot bigger … There was a real fear,” Murray-Benge said.
She said they did not see any of the violence but saw it on TV and said it was “frightening”.
“You didn’t know how bad it would be, or how long the war would go on for.”
Murray-Benge said they were warned the airport may close and flights may be cancelled so they took the advice to leave the country earlier.
They got a flight home - only nine seats were available when they booked - via Dubai on Sunday, a day earlier than planned.
They left their hotel in Haifa at 2am and were driven to the airport in Tel Aviv about 120km away, with an “eerie feeling that trouble was near”.
They passed “truckload after truckload” transporting combat tanks and military personnel.
The airport was “chaos” with “huge” queues as fights were delayed and cancelled.
She said there were “so many people trying to get out” who, like them, were worried about being trapped in the country.
They feared the airport would be targeted.
“You just don’t know when [missiles] are going to come.”
She said there were signs pointing to shelters, and she was not sure if they were new or permanent. Their flight was noticeably quiet and people appeared ”deep in their own thoughts” and “grateful” to be leaving.
She felt for businesses in the country that relied on tourists and for those involved in the complex situation and did not know if the flight they were originally booked on made it out.
Brash said they passed 12 large military trucks on their 2am drive to the airport made them aware it was a “serious attack”.
“We were deeply depressed in that it was clear that a major military confrontation was taking place and many people were going to lose their lives.”
A total of 210 Kiwis had registered on SafeTravel as being in Israel, The New Zealand Herald reported.
They included up to 54 members of a church group for a Holy Land tour who got stuck in Israel.
Ten New Zealanders were registered in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
