84-year-old Annie Stenekens from Geldrop has been stuck in Israel for days. It is unclear when she and her two Frisian traveling companions can return home. “On the balcony you can see the rockets flying overhead.”
“It’s very intense,” Annie describes. “We’ve seen a lot of missiles come over us. You keep hearing impacts, planes and anti-aircraft guns. When the sirens go off we have a minute and a half to get to the safe room to go into the house.”
“You can’t leave anymore. Streets are empty. Shops also have nothing left and are no longer receiving stock,” she describes the situation in the country. “It all creates a lot of tension. We often have to go to the shelter.”
“I have never experienced it so intensely.”
Annie has been going to Israel regularly for decades, on average twice a year. She does not sleep in hotels, but in the house of her daughter, who has lived there for at least 30 years. She lives in the town of Beit Aryeh-Ofarim, about 30 kilometers east of Tel Aviv. “I have never experienced it so intensely in Israel.”
Once again she went to the country for the Israeli Feast of Tabernacles. That party lasts a week. It commemorates that the Israelites wandered in the Sinai desert under the protection of God for forty years.
She travels with good friend Roelof Kingma and girlfriend Lideke. The trip would last a week. “We had such a great time, with beautiful trips to the Dead Sea, wine tasting and parties.” The plan was to go back on Saturday, but due to the war this was no longer possible. “We are very shocked.”
“I would rather something happen to myself than to my children.”
“I worry a lot about my family.” Annie has two granddaughters and a grandson in Israel. “I would rather something happen to myself than to my children. I have reached that age. I would rather stay, but I have to go back for medicine and because that is what has been agreed.”
The return journey goes anything but smoothly. At least that is the opinion of her traveling companion Roelof, who shows several photos of rocket impacts. “Contacts with the embassy are very difficult. I’m constantly calling and I have no idea when we can go back.”
The return of Dutch people started on Wednesday. A Defense plane picks up more than 200 Dutch people in Tel Aviv, and a day later KLM sends a charter flight to Israel. Both flights can pick up a total of 500 people. Roelof: ‘I also just heard this through the media, but I don’t know if and when we can join in.”