9 hours ago
Bengal students stuck in Israel reach Jordan, wait for flight to Del
Kolkata: The first batch of Bengal students stranded in Israel is scheduled to board a flight from Amman, Jordan, after the Indian govt started the evacuation operation. More than 20 students from Bengal crossed the Israel-Jordan border amid heavy security and threats of missile strikes.
On Monday, five buses — two from Haifa and three from Tel Aviv, carrying Indian students stuck in Israel — left for Jordan. Amaresh Das, a resident of East Midnapore and a post-doctoral research scholar with the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, got onto the bus from Haifa early in the morning.
The entire 60km stretch from Haifa to Jordan was calm on Monday. But it suddenly changed when the bus was crossing the Jordan River.
"A total of five buses carrying Indian students were travelling together. The bus from Tel Aviv was behind us. The embassy officials were trying to send the buses to the Jordan side as soon as possible. Suddenly, there was an extreme alert of sirens. We got down from the bus at the nearest shelter and got inside that," recounted Das.
When they reached the border, there was a huge crowd waiting to cross. The document checking and visa processing had to be hurried.
"We were nearly 150 people in five buses, and everyone was tense. We knew we had to rush to Amman now," Das said.
On Sunday, some of the students missed the flight from Amman, and the officials also wanted to ensure that nobody missed a flight. "We don't know when we will reach New Delhi. The details are not shared with us as yet. We will have to make our own arrangements from Delhi to reach Kolkata," Das said.
"We heard that the first flight from Jordan carrying Indian students under the evacuation operation left Amman in the afternoon. But we are yet to get any news of the second flight departing. Meanwhile, there were fresh missile attacks in central Israel," said Sayantan Maiti. Barrackpore resident Maiti, who is pursuing research in surface chemistry of diamonds at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, is scheduled to be evacuated on Tuesday.
"I am yet to get a call or confirmation from the Indian embassy in Israel. I think it might get delayed by a day now," he said.
