Landing in Israel

 I hope this is OK, but I thought I’d keep some sort of diary of the time here in Israel. I apologise if this is a bit of a stream of thoughts..

There are a lot of doctors abroad who are hoping to come to volunteer in Israel, and I feel really lucky that Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon had a place for an anaesthetist/ICU doc, so on Saturday night Ayelet and I found a place on one of the few flights to Israel and I managed to come here.

The flight was an interesting mix of people: The guy behind us in the queue was a volunteer for the army who 10 years previously had volunteered as a lone soldier in the paratroopers, and was now coming to join his old unit on the Lebanese border; In front of us were an elderly Haredi couple on their way to a wedding.

Friends of my in-laws had been collecting equipment for soldiers (socks, clothes, leathermen, etc.) and gave me 4 bags full. I honestly thought airport security would have an apoplectic fit, but they took it in their stride and let me board with all 5 bags.

We landed safely in Ben Gurion, where everything looked normal except that all the airplanes I saw were ElAl, plus one what looked like a US Air Force transport plane. My mum came to pick me up which was wonderful, and my grandparents-in-law had lent me their car. Everyone here is being so generous. While we went to pick up the car in the car park, I got the first real indication of the situation here, as the air raid sirens went off. We were thankfully 2 floors down, so sheltered in place, waiting for the explosions to pass plus a bit for any falling shrapnel, and went back to the car.

That night I got to stay with my parents in Netanya, having had a wonderful meal dad had rustled up at zero notice as usual. Woke at 4am to head south - the roads south of Tel Aviv were wonderfully empty.