Canada will begin evacuating its citizens from Tel Aviv by the end of the week — except that on day 5 of the violent conflict between Hamas and Israel, Canadians still trapped in the region are taking the necessary steps to return themselves in the country.
Kathryn Drew did not want to wait for measures from the Canadian government: she preferred to pay thousands of dollars to bring her daughter back to the country as soon as possible.
His daughter Geneviève, a 38-year-old resident of Candiac, was passing through Tel Aviv to discover the city in which her parents met many years ago. The dream that she had always cherished was unfortunately ruined by “bad timing”, laments her mother.
“My daughter arrived in Israel last Tuesday. She was traveling alone and staying in an apartment without reception [cellulaire]. Saturday morning, she was at the beach when she heard sirens and [explosions] far away,” she says on the phone in an interview with Duty.
It was around 6:30 a.m. that many Israelis woke up to the sound of sirens after rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.
As the conflict escalated over the weekend, Kathryn began the process of repatriating her daughter to the country as quickly as possible. “I went to the embassy website [du Canada en Israël] and it was indicated that it was closed for three days,” she relates.
Other Canadians in Israel reported being unable to reach the Canadian embassy over the Thanksgiving weekend and being frustrated by the lack of assistance from the Canadian government. Minister Mélanie Joly, however, has assured numerous times that the embassy was open and that consular services were operational 24 hours every day since the attacks began.
“Of no help”
“The Canadian government was of no help,” laments Mme Drew on the line. It was ultimately her 20 years of experience as a travel agent that helped her shop for the rare — and expensive — commercial flights to return home. And even these personal steps were laborious.
After thousands of dollars spent on tickets that resulted in canceled flights, an airport agent finally contacted her on Monday: there was only one seat left with Emirates airline to the city of Boston. But to do this, his daughter had to go to the airport immediately. “It was like a scene from a movie,” exclaims Mme Drew.
The flight, which cost nearly $4,000 US, was ultimately worth it. As of Wednesday afternoon, her daughter Geneviève was indeed on a plane for her return. She should land in Montreal on Thursday.
“I told myself that I was lucky to have room on my credit card. What about people who don’t have it? » blurted Mme Drew.
Despite the money spent and the numerous phone calls made, the latter does not regret having taken her own steps. “Anything can happen in two days and things move very quickly there. […] If you have a chance to get out, do you really want to count on the Canadian government to act in two days? I do not think so “.
Overpriced options
What was supposed to be a dream trip also turned into a nightmare for Jess Burke, a Canadian citizen. The director of the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations was in Jerusalem celebrating her wedding with friends and family when the Hamas attack began on Saturday.
“We had Shabbat dinner, went to sleep, and woke up Saturday morning to the sound of missiles and bombs,” she said in an interview with Duty. As of Wednesday afternoon, Jess was still in Jerusalem and had been desperately searching for a way back home since the attacks began.
After contacting the Canadian Embassy, Jess and her loved ones decided to opt for a return trip via commercial flights. “We received the same response as everyone else, the first automatic response being that there were no flights planned,” she says.
Jess was also quickly confronted with the scarcity of available flights — to the point where she even considered opting for a charter flight. “It cost around €53,000 [environ 76 500 $ canadiens] for eight people to go to Athens or Cyprus, which is simply not possible.”
She finally managed to book a flight to Ethiopia, scheduled for Saturday, at a cost of $2,300. “It’s considered affordable. Commercial flights are really not accessible to stranded people [ici] “.
Evacuations from the weekend
Evacuations from Tel Aviv could begin as early as Thursday evening, but are more likely to begin Friday, government officials said at a technical briefing in Ottawa on Wednesday.
“If we have the opportunity to take a repatriation flight on Friday, we would be very excited, or even Thursday,” says Jess Burke. But their real availability remains uncertain, she emphasizes.
“Will it be first come, first served? Will they give priority to the elderly or people with disabilities? There are a lot of questions about how they are going to try to make the process fair,” she notes.
Canadian Armed Forces aircraft will take part in evacuation flights for Canadians from Tel Aviv. These planes will transport evacuated Canadians and their families to Athens, Greece. From there, an Air Canada plane will bring passengers back to the country.
This operation is “rare” and “exceptional”, underlined Minister Joly, since commercial flights are still available for nationals. “But given that there were so many flight cancellations and delays, it created a huge delay. The options [pour les Canadiens à Tel-Aviv] were really becoming more limited,” explained the minister.
The number of flights has not yet been determined and will ultimately depend on the number of Canadians who have registered with Global Affairs Canada. There are currently 4,227 Canadians registered with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service in Israel and 475 Canadians in the Palestinian territories. Global Affairs Canada has responded to 1,990 requests for information since the start of the conflict.
With Lise Denis