More than twelve thousand kilometers separate Guayaquil from Tel Aviv. That was the distance Roberto Estrada from Guayaquil traveled to visit Israeli cities with his daughter on a tour they had planned in advance. He never thought he would be involved in any way in the conflict that Israel and Palestine have been waging for decades, until the fateful Saturday, October 7, when terror erupted.

Feeling intimately connected to the conflict, he was closely confronted with the alert reality that its inhabitants have to live because of this long, bloody conflict without a near solution that has characterized the Middle East for decades.

Not even the phrase of the tour guide who told them: “Don’t worry, because statistically more people die in Israel from traffic accidents than from falling rockets,” reassured Roberto Estrada (51), who was in Israel last September 30 arrived and was supposed to leave last Monday, October 9, but due to the attack this could not happen.

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In dialogue with Diario EL UNIVERSO, Estrada said that his arrival in Israel took place during a walking trip with his daughter that had been planned for months.

“Israel is a nation that contains thousands of years of history that you want to experience personally after reading and studying it over time. So this was a great opportunity to be present in this place where so many things have happened in the history of humanity,” he said.

The first days they visited various tourist attractions, such as Bethlehem, Capernaum or the Golan Heights. However, on Saturday October 7 it was the turn of his last tour to go to the Masada Desert and the Dead Sea. The departure time was at 6:30 am from their hotel and they moved to Jerusalem to pick up more tourists.

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On the way to that city, the guide informed them that there had been incidents in the Gaza Strip, but reassured them of the security that Israel has always maintained during this long conflict.

After making a stopover in Jerusalem and heading to his destination, the man from Guayaquil noticed a change in the guide’s face and was told that the situation was complicated, so the plan was to cancel the tours . tours and mobilizations and undertaking returns to the hotels.

Lock yourself in bunkers

“Saturday was the most complicated day because we got back to the hotel around noon and in the afternoon the sirens started going off. At the hotel they gave us the order and told us that every time the sirens sounded, which was an alarm signal, we had to immediately go to the basement of the hotel until further notice,” he explained.

The alarm went off at least four times that Saturday, which changed the experience they had.

People left messages on the streets of Tel Aviv. Photo: courtesy

Estrada points out that they heard the intervention of the call Iron dome, an air defense system that Israel has. He remembers thunderous sounds that meant the neutralization of missiles.

One of the moments that struck him most and showed that the situation could escalate further was when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared who were at war before the attacks.

Search for flight

The uncertainty started on Sunday, since that day he received an email in which an airline announced that his daughter’s flight to Germany would be rescheduled the next day. “Obviously I couldn’t leave on Monday, go to Spain and leave her alone in Tel Aviv,” he remembers.

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So she moved her flight to Madrid to Tuesday to ensure that her daughter could also leave the country. To cope with an eventuality, he also bought his daughter a ticket to Madrid, in case her flight was suspended, a situation that finally occurred on Tuesday.

During this time I checked the situation at the airport. When he went there on Tuesday and arrived at the airport terminal, he received an email saying the flight to Madrid had been cancelled.

“My blood ran cold because the taxi driver was already dropping us off at the entrance of the airport,” he said.

Because you cannot reach an airline telephone number or because there is staff available counterEstrada had to look for an alternative. He worked at a multinational company that has safety protocols in place when its employees are at risk, and contacted her. After an hour they got him a flight to Cyprus.

They could not return to the hotel as it was decided to close it for security reasons, and they were given an alternative in case they could not leave Israel.

Roberto Estrada and his daughter were visiting Israel when the raid took place. Photo: courtesy

He also contacted the Ecuadorian diplomatic unit in Israel. “They treated me very kindly and what they told me was that the situation was still yellow alert and there was no provision for a humanitarian flight; and if the alarm were to turn red, the alarm would of course be activated there. humanitarian flight protocol. So you have to list the alternatives, the options,” he said.

Since the flight to Cyprus was a certainty and confirmation, they decided to take it. They left for Larnaca, on that island, around 1 p.m. on Wednesday. There they go towards Madrid.

At the airport they met an Ecuadorian who also wanted to leave the country and take the option of traveling to Cyprus; However, he could not do this because he did not have a Schengen visa.

Critical moments

Estrada said that in his experience there were two moments when the situation was clear: one was the activation of the warning sirens and another was the helicopter flight over the city on Sunday.

“There is nothing that compares to the word war. When you hear someone say, especially the number one of a country, say, “We are at war,” that is something that shocks you. So, more than ever, we must attach importance to the issue that we are not involved in a military conflict with any country, without downplaying the reality that we live in Ecuador,” he said.

He adds that diplomatic systems must have support for these cases where additional documents are needed to leave a country at war, as well as adequate communication channels.

Repatriation of compatriots

Ecuador’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that no Ecuadorian nationals have been registered among the victims so far. María Concepción Barahona, Ecuador’s ambassador to Israel, indicated that more than 1,000 Ecuadorians were in Israel last Saturday, October 7, including residents and tourists.

A humanitarian flight has been organized to repatriate them. The plane could arrive from Thursday, October 12 to Sunday, October 15.

Since October 7 last year, Israel has been on high alert due to the attack the country has received from the Islamist militia Hamas, which has carried out raids from the air, land and sea.

As the hours passed, images and videos of the violent attack and Israel’s response against buildings in the Gaza Strip were released.

According to official figures, 1,200 people were killed in Israel on Wednesday, and another 1,055 in Gaza. (JO)