Relieved Pakistanis recall 'horrifying nights' as Israel, Iran trade strikes
The 35-year-old University of Tehran student is one of about 3,000 Pakistanis who, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have returned home since Israel launched its aerial war against its long-time enemy last week.
Governments around the world are scrambling to evacuate their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling conflict as Israel and Iran trade missile and drone strikes.
"I was in the city centre where most of the strikes took place and even one of the student dormitories was attacked and luckily no one was dead, but students were injured," Hassan said.
There are more than 500 Pakistani students at his university alone, he said, all of them on their way "back home".
"Those days and nights were very horrifying... hearing sirens, the wailing, the danger of being hit by missiles. As one peeped out the window in the night, you could see drones, missiles with fire tails," he told AFP.
- Ghost town -
Pakistan and Iran have a shaky diplomatic relationship. They bombed each other's territory little more than a year ago, both claiming to target rebels using their neighbour's land to launch attacks.
Yet they have never suspended trade, tourism and academic ties.
Iranian consulates across Pakistan have stepped up efforts to promote their universities.
Between 25 million and 35 million Pakistani Shiite Muslims also hope to make at least one pilgrimage in their lifetime to holy sites in Iran, foremost among them the sacred city of Qom.
Mohammad Khalil, a 41-year-old petroleum engineer, left Tehran three days ago, the capital of the Islamic Republic looking like a ghost town as residents sheltered indoors and families fled.
"In the last two days, I saw people moving out of the city in different vehicles with necessary commodities," Khalil said.
Abdul Ghani Khan sells medical equipment in his hometown of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan and travels to Iran regularly for supplies.
He had been in Tehran for a week when the first Israeli missiles fell on Friday. Iran and Israel have traded heavy missile fire in the days since, raising fears of a wider regional conflict.
Pakistan is in a difficult position as the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons. It, like Iran, does not recognise Israel but is also a major ally of the United States.
Khan had to make the journey home by road because the airspace is now closed. Pakistan has also shut its border crossings with Iran to all except Pakistanis wanting to return home.
"We saw drones, red lights of anti-aircraft guns and I spotted one building catch fire," Khan said.
- 'Offering prayer' -
Mohammad Asif, a lawyer from Lahore in Pakistan's east, heard about the air strikes while on a pilgrimage in Qom.
He wasn't initially afraid and continued his pilgrimage to Mashhad in Iran's northeast, home to the golden-domed Imam Reza shrine.
That was until Israeli strikes hit the airport in Mashhad, nearly 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the Pakistani border.
Samreen Ali was also in Mashhad but, like Asif, cut her trip short and returned with her husband and 15-year-old son.
She was praying in a mosque in Mashhad when Israel struck the city.
Ali said she had visited Iran nine times before on pilgrimages and never imagined witnessing war there.
"I was offering prayer when I heard two explosions," she told AFP.
She then noticed she wasn't receiving messages on her phone and assumed that "communication was being restricted... because of the war".
Syed Saqib, 46, was in Qom and had to travel 500 kilometres (310 miles) by bus southeast to Yazd.
"We had to take alternative routes, spend an entire night waiting at a bus terminal," Saqib said.
They then boarded buses to Zahedan, a city near the border with Pakistan's Balochistan province. A relieved Saqib recalled making the border crossing at Taftan, surrounded by families carrying heavy luggage.
mak-sam/stm/pbt
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
25 minutes ago
- New York Post
A stranger told me I was sending my kids to ‘Nazi camp' — this shows how mainstream anti-Jew hate has become
My children go to a Zionist Jewish summer camp. It's the kind of place that instills pride in Jewish identity and love for Israel while giving kids the normal joys of camp: canoeing, hiking, and endless games of soccer. But on the last Friday before the session ended, the kids and staff experienced a scare that revealed just how fragile Jewish life in America has become. During a live-streamed ceremony, paragliders appeared over the campus. They swooped low, and panic rippled through the crowd. For most American campers, it was confusing. For the Israeli staff and campers, many of them children directly impacted by the October 7th terror attacks near Gaza, the sight was terrifying. Paragliders were how Hamas terrorists descended that morning to murder, rape, and kidnap. The sound of their motors and the image of their canopies burned into memory. 4 The cyber-attacker used their real name in the messages. bethanyshondark/X The camp had fundraised to bring dozens of these traumatized Israeli children to safety for the summer. For them, seeing paragliders overhead was not a quirky airshow, it was the beginning of another attack. Staff acted instantly. State police were called. The children were evacuated to a secure location on campus. The livestream was cut off after we watched the evacuation begin. Parents, myself included, went into panic mode, wondering if we were watching another massacre unfold in real time. Thankfully, the paragliders were not terrorists. It was a misguided stunt, not an attack. But the trauma was real. Jewish children, American and Israeli alike, relived October 7th that afternoon in the middle of a peaceful American summer camp. When I shared what happened online, my post went viral, with over 5 million views. Instead of compassion, what flooded in were thousands of hateful comments. Strangers mocked the idea that Jewish children could have PTSD. They sneered at traumatized kids as if they were actors in some propaganda campaign. And then I opened a direct message that made my stomach turn. A woman, using her real name, wrote: 'F— you and f— your kid who goes to Nazi summer camp! Free Palestine from you sick f—s!' After I called her out, she went on, 'You are literally indoctrinating your children with the idea that raping and murdering people for their land is not only okay but promised to you by god. Zionism is a disease that you are spreading to your children and one day you will be recognized as the supporter of Genocide that you are.' 4 Mandel decided to search up the person behind the messaged and exposed them to their workplace. bethanyshondark/X That message didn't come from a troll in a dark basement. Thirty seconds of searching showed me that Danielle Gordon of Denver is a white, middle-class, college-educated employee of Fidelity, one of the largest financial institutions in the country. Her LinkedIn profile describes her as 'dedicated to working in inclusive, respectful, and ethical places.' And yet here she was, spewing genocidal hate at Jewish children. I decided to expose her name for three reasons. First, to show just how mainstream this kind of hate has become. Danielle isn't some fringe extremist hiding behind an anonymous account. She's a professional at one of the most respected financial institutions in the country. She's a typical progressive parroting TikTok talking points about Jews, Zionism, and Israel. At one point she even lectured me that 'Zionism goes against your religion' — a laughable claim for anyone who has read a page of Jewish history. Her hatred isn't rare; it's disturbingly ordinary. And that's what makes it so dangerous. This strain of progressive antisemitism thrives side by side with self-aggrandizing claims of moral superiority. Second, accountability matters. If Danielle Gordon is representing Fidelity and a client mentions assets or travel plans tied to Israel, should that client trust their money in her hands? 4 Mandel found her LinkedIn profile, where she works at Fidelity. bethanyshondark/X These are not abstract concerns; they go to the heart of whether Jews can participate equally in American life without fear that professionals charged with safeguarding our futures secretly despise us. (In a statement to The Post, Fidelity responded on Tuesday: 'Fidelity does not tolerate hateful, harassing or discriminatory behavior of any kind. The individual no longer works at Fidelity.') And third, I am an October 8th Jew. October 7th shattered the illusion of safety. October 8th was the day after, the day we realized the world would excuse terror and that the hatred we always suspected was there was now fully in the open. I am done playing nice. If you want to make Jewish children relive their trauma, if you want to mock their PTSD and celebrate their fear, then don't expect to do so with anonymity and no consequences. For too long, Jews in America have been told to keep our heads down, not make waves, not 'provoke.' That strategy hasn't worked. The murders of Jews in Los Angeles, Detroit, Denver, and Washington, D.C., prove that. A Zionist Jewish summer camp is, in fact, a target. To pretend otherwise is delusion. 4 Mandel said that she exposed the name to show how this type of hate has become mainstream. bethanyshondark/X So here is my message: if you come at Jews, expect a fight. That's what being an October 8th Jew means. It means the days of pretending antisemitism is rare or fringe are over. It means no longer accepting excuses for those who dehumanize us. It means fighting back with every tool we have: our voices, our platforms, and our refusal to be silent. Get opinions and commentary from our columnists Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters Jewish children should be able to go to camp in America without fearing that paragliders overhead signal another massacre. Parents should not have to wonder if strangers online want their kids dead. And no professional should be able to boast about 'inclusivity' by day while preaching genocide against Jews on weekends without being held accountable. October 7th was the day of horror. October 8th was the day of reckoning. And we are still living in it. Bethany Mandel writes and podcasts at The Mom Wars.
The Hill
42 minutes ago
- The Hill
ASSAULT on Gaza could ‘DESTROY the SOUL' of Israel, ex-PM tells The Hill I The Niall Stanage Show
President Trump needs to intervene to stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from proceeding with his new offensive in Gaza. That's according to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who told The Hill's Niall Stanage in an exclusive interview, 'now, to carry on is a crime.' The official death toll in Gaza has surpassed 62,000 people and more than 100 children are reported to have died because of malnutrition. There are estimated to be around 22 Israeli hostages still alive in Gaza, as well as 28 who are believed to be deceased. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested against Netanyahu's latest plans on Sunday. Olmert led Israel from 2006 to 2009.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Netanyahu faces pressure from far right over new cease-fire proposal
Advertisement Both Israelis and Palestinians have referred to the latest proposal as a 'partial deal' because it postpones addressing key disputes between Israel and Hamas. It neither ensures the release of all the hostages nor the end of the war, though theoretically it could tackle them in a second stage. Hamas has said it is willing to release all the hostages on the condition that Israel ends the war. But Hamas has not publicly accepted Netanyahu's conditions for doing so, which include the group's disarmament. Amid the political maneuvering, the violence continued in Gaza. Hospitals in the enclave said they had received the bodies of 34 Palestinians killed Tuesday, including women and children, as Israeli strikes continued across the territory. Nasser Hospital said an airstrike killed a mother, father and three children in their tent overnight in Muwasi, a camp for hundreds of thousands of civilians. Advertisement 'An entire family was gone in an instant. What was their fault?' the children's grandfather, Majed al-Mashwakhi, said, sobbing. Israel's military did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the strikes. The gulf between Hamas and Israel's position on a cease-fire, analysts say, suggests that a partial deal is more realistic than a comprehensive one. The terms approved by Hamas were similar to those Israel has previously accepted and include both a temporary cease-fire and a path to an agreement to end the war, according to officials briefed on its contents, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy. Netanyahu has not publicly shared his position on the new cease-fire proposal. In July, President Trump said Israel had agreed to 'the necessary conditions' to finalize a 60-day cease-fire, during which the United States would 'work with all parties to end the war.' At the time, the agreement on the table called for the release of 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 others during the 60-day period in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Talks to reach that deal ultimately collapsed. In six weeks, the war will enter its third year. Some 1,200 people were killed and 251 abducted in the Hamas-led attack that ignited the war Oct. 7, 2023, according to Israeli authorities. Since then, more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, said the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in casualty counts. Itamar Ben Gvir, the national security minister, said Monday that Netanyahu does not have a 'mandate to go to a partial deal.' Advertisement Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, rejected what he called 'stopping in the middle with a partial deal that abandons half the hostages and that could lead to the suspension of the war in defeat.' 'It is forbidden to surrender and give a lifeline to the enemy,' he said. Netanyahu relies on the support of Ben Gvir's and Smotrich's parties to maintain the stability of his government. Last week, Netanyahu suggested Israel was no longer interested in a deal that would involve the release of only some hostages. 'I think that is behind us,' he told the Hebrew-language channel of i24 News. But Tuesday, Gila Gamliel, a minister in Israel's security Cabinet and an ally of Netanyahu, did not rule out the latest offer. 'There's a proposal,' she told Channel 14. 'We know what it says. 'We will examine what we will say about that,' she added. In early August, Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration's special envoy for peace missions, told families of Israeli hostages at a meeting that Trump now wanted to see all the living hostages released at once. 'No piecemeal deals; that doesn't work,' Witkoff said, according to an audio recording of part of the meeting published by the Ynet Hebrew news site. 'Now we think that we have to shift this negotiation to 'all or nothing' — everybody comes home,' he said. 'We have a plan around it,' he added, without elaborating. A participant in the meeting confirmed that Witkoff made such remarks. The shift in focus from 'all or nothing' to a partial deal came after Netanyahu advanced his plan for the military to occupy Gaza City. Advertisement Egypt and Qatar, both strongly opposed to the prime minister's plan, helped craft the new terms for a cease-fire. While the countries have been calling for an end to the war, their proposal likely focused on starting with a partial deal because they were aware of the irreconcilable positions Israel and Hamas have staked out on ending the conflict. 'They're trying to force Israel not to invade Gaza City,' said Tamer Qarmout, a professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. 'That's the basic goal.'
