Britons stranded in Israel as Iranian strikes continue

Thousands of British are blocked in Israel and unable to leave, while Iran and Israel continue to attack each other in an intensification conflict that has been in progress for days.

Israeli airspace is closed until further notice and all thefts have been put to the ground, without any sign of an imminent break in hostilities.

Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones in Israel in recent days in retaliation for Israeli strikes on its military infrastructure on Friday.

Addressing the BBC, the British nationals Speaking of white nights punctuated by the groan of sirens, constant journeys from front to back to bomb the shelters and the uncertainty not to know when they can go home.

Many of those blocked put pressure for the British government to help them, but the BBC understands that at this stage, there are no plans for evacuation.

The British government has advised of all trips to Israel and said to British citizens in the country of Record their presence and follow the local advice.

Deborah Claydon, 41, teacher of the Hertfordshire, flew to Israel last Wednesday for what was supposed to be a three -day trip to attend the wedding of his cousin.

She now finds herself trapped in Herzliya on the central coast of Israel with her 81-year-old mother, while the missiles fly above.

Three hours after their return from the wedding last Thursday evening, “we heard sirens and we had to go to the bombs refuge,” she told the BBC.

“It was a trip of two halves: from exaltation to fear.”

Each evening since then, Ms. Claydon says that she has been awakened several times by alarms warning incoming missiles and a count to go to a refuge. They are lucky, she said, because their hotel has a well-equipped shelter, but “it’s scary and many people are panicked”.

“I remain positive because my mother is here with me,” said the mother of three children. “But it’s horrible. I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t want to be awake three times a night, thinking that I could be struck by a missile. I want to go home and my children.”

At least 24 people have been killed in Israel since Friday, according to the office of the Israeli Prime Minister. The Iranian Ministry of Health said that on Sunday, Israeli strikes had killed more than 200 people across the country.

While hostilities led in the fifth day on Tuesday, the two countries promised new reprisals.

Tel Aviv International Airport was closed on Friday and will not open before any notice, the authorities said. All flights to and from Israel have been suspended and thousands of people.

About 40,000 tourists are stuck in the country, said the Israeli tourism ministry. Among them, those who went to Tel Aviv for its annual pride parade, which was to take place on Friday but was canceled after hostilities broke out.

Some people plan to leave Israel via land passages to neighboring Jordan or Egypt and to obtain flights from there.

Tuesday, Ms. Claydon, as well as a group of tourists from other countries, began a long trip by car on the border with Egypt where she plans to go to Sharm El-Sheik and return home.

She said he was “too risky” to bring her mother, who will remain with her brother in a neighboring city.

Addressing the BBC before the trip, Ms. Claydon said that she was “terrified”.

“It is a very unstable and uncertain situation, not knowing that I am more safe or I am safer to stay?

For some British, traveling on the ground is an impossibility.

Hannah Lyons-Singer, 43, arrived in Jaffa last Tuesday to take care of her father, after being hospitalized during his vacation in Israel with her mother. A few hours after its release after a heart procedure, “war broke out,” she said.

The mother of three, from London, said that the situation was a break in her elderly parents, especially when her father, who has 80th, should be recovered.

“We hear explosions outside,” she told the BBC. “Some of them seem very close. There have been direct successes in a few kilometers from both of us in the last two nights.”

She added that he was “stifled hot” in the refuge.

Ms. Lyons-Singer is desperate to go home with her children and her father needs additional treatment in the United Kingdom, but making the trip of several hours to the border is not possible in her current state.

She called on the British government to better help British citizens return home.

“There is no advice other than a warning not to go to Israel,” she said.

“They could offer safe trips to Egypt or reassure us that once open airspace, they will provide evacuation routes, but they did not offer us aid.

“My fear is that even once the airspace opens, commercial flights do not start immediately.”

Howard Youngerwood, 79, from London, went to Israel earlier this month for the bar of his granddaughter Mitzvah. The Jewish ceremony passing by adulthood was interrupted when hostilities broke out and they were ordered to evacuate the Kibbutz near Jerusalem.

“We are exhausted,” he said. “We spend a lot of time – convent in my case – getting to shelters. It is wreaking havoc, especially when you hear about the victims.”

The retirement judge, who has several ailments, including mobility problems, is not able to try to cross land and do not consider him as a safe option.

Angus Edy, 52, who is stuck in Tel Aviv with his 22 -year -old son, Samuel, said that the situation was “horrible” and the “lack of care” manifested by the British government towards the stranded British “shocking”.

Since their flight was canceled on Friday, they have been in and out of the shelters. On Monday, after feeling the reverberation of a massive explosion of their refuge at the gymnasia isrotel, opposite the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the hotel announced that it closed and said that they should seek a more underground refuge.

“It seems that the situation becomes increasingly difficult,” he said.

Edy added that they had phoned the British consulate every day that advised them to register for e-mail alerts.

“We even went to the embassy in person [on Monday] And they wouldn’t even talk to us. The lack of care is just shocking. “”

THE Foreign Office (FCDO) has advised all trips to Israel Due to a “rapid situation which presents significant risks” which “have” the potential to deteriorate more, quickly and without warning “.

Official advice too Advise against all trips to Iran.

Tourists from other nations are also blocked. The BBC spoke to the Joyner family, from the United States on Sunday, who were one of those who argue when and how to try to leave.

Poland has said that it would begin to evacuate around 200 of its citizens in the coming days.

On Monday, the vice-minister of foreign affairs, Henryka Moscacka-Dendys, said that those who “were stuck as tourists” would leave via the capital of Jordan Amman, then fly away for Warsaw.

Meanwhile, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs called both nationals in Iran and Israel to enter their contact details in an online emergency system. About 4,000 did it in Israel and around 1,000 in Iran. A spokesperson said there were no current evacuation plans for one or the other country.

But other nations evacuated citizens – on Tuesday morning, a plane from the Czech government landed in Prague carrying 66 people who had been evacuated from Israel, confirmed the Minister of Defense. Poland said it organized theft in Egypt and Jordan for its citizens after more than 300 evacuation.

It is estimated that some 100,000 Israelis are abroad and unable to return to Israel. The authorities advised Israelis not to try to cross because of security risks and to wait for safer travel options.

Additional James Kelly reports