A British man has said he will be stranded in Israel for weeks because of a lack of commercial flights out of the country to the UK.
Keith Ottaway, 46, originally planned to return to the UK on September 24 after visiting his partner in Israel, but successive flights were cancelled.
He said the next available ticket with Israeli flag carrier airline El Al is not until October 21.
Mr Ottaway, whose partner Odin lives in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, said it is “very unsettling” and he wants to return earlier to see his two teenage daughters in the UK.
He told the PA news agency: “I’m not able to work from here, so I’m using my leave. But more to the point, I’ve got two teenage daughters back home.
“I want to get back and see them. I’m in touch with them and they know I’m safe, but it’s a bit stressful.”
Mr Ottaway, who works for a local authority, said he understands why the UK Government is focusing its flight efforts on Beirut in Lebanon, as it is “under much more constant bombardment from Israel”.
Britons continued to fly from Lebanon on Thursday after more than 150 British nationals and dependents left Beirut on the first UK Government-chartered plane.
Mr Ottaway said: “But there are a lot of Brits in Israel and there are no flights out at the minute.
“They will say, ‘There are still commercial flights to be got on’, which is true. But I’m waiting three weeks.
“You don’t know what could happen in those three weeks.
“There’s a lot of people here that would be grateful if a flight was there tomorrow to get on, but I can’t see it happening.”
Mr Ottaway, who lives in south London, said the missiles from Iran that hit Israel on Tuesday night were “frightening and scary”.
He added: “We’re sitting on the sofa, just watching the news, and then suddenly our phones start vibrating and beeping, and this alert comes up in Hebrew on everyone’s phone.
“Certainly, I had not heard anything like that. It was so loud and you saw flashes.
“I think Israelis are so used to this kind of thing that everyone can go about their day, whereas I’m more like, ‘Wow, that was quite a crazy thing’.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel