Israel at war: Relieved, heartbroken … and on the way home

More than 120 relieved and heartbroken Australians from Israel are on their last leg home, leaving Heathrow for Sydney on Tuesday.

Australian officials help passengers at London’s Heathrow airport as they are repatriated from Israel on Tuesday. Picture: Getty Images

More than 120 relieved and heartbroken Australians from Israel are on their last leg home, leaving Heathrow for Sydney on Tuesday.

With bags piled high on luggage carts and little ones wrapped snugly in baby carriers, many of the Australians were traumatised by the experience of having to flee Israel at the last minute.

Many had tried to flee within hours of the Hamas slaughter of 1300 people in southern Israel on October 7 but quickly found repeated flights were cancelled.

A Qatar flight carrying 222 passengers did finally land at Sydney on Tuesday night, with family and friends greeting those rescued from the war-torn country with hugs and tears.

Only one Qantas flight managed to leave Tel Aviv for London last Friday, and because of issues for commercial airliners with insurance, a planned second flight was cancelled.

The government has since provided six assisted charter flights organised from Tel Aviv to Dubai.

On Monday, one of those half-dozen Australian planes left Tel Aviv with 194 passengers, including 96 from Pacific island ­countries; some of these people are now expected to join the ­special London-Sydney flight.

Australian high commissioner to the United Kingdom Stephen Smith said 1400 Israelis had registered with the Australian government for assistance, but of those, 300 were for information only.

He said the government was working closely with the US, Britain, New Zealand and Canada – the other Five Eyes intelligence partners – “in difficult and challenging circumstances”.

A young couple who had volunteered in northern Israel were relived to get on the Australian emergency flight because of their two young daughters.

The father said: “We were supposed to be in Israel for a few years … but with the uncertainty, we thought it best to go back to Australia and see how the situation evolves. Our hope is we can return if things improve.”

Miranda and Gary from Melbourne had been on a tour and cruise, arriving in Tel Aviv the night before the war began.

“It was a pretty hairy time,’’ said Miranda.

“We got there on Friday night and … there was a rooftop party at the adjoining building, and we thought these Israelis really know how to party, then we woke up hearing explosions … We didn’t know that was the iron dome intersecting with the rockets.”

Perth woman Tanya was returning home after a big family wedding for her niece and 420 guests was cancelled.

“We came for a family wedding which didn’t happen; the groom, instead of being married, is now on the frontline in the army,’’ she said.

Ronette, who had been in Israel for 12 years teaching English, said she still had a vivid image in her head of Israeli men with their pants down around their ankles and with their face into the ground, tied and held at gunpoint by Hamas.

“There are other shocking things, but looking at this image I just thought about the Holocaust, it is heartbreaking,’’ she said.

She said she had been dealing with the atrocities with “high anxiety, extreme anger, fury, and I am extremely, extremely sad”.