A group of University of Miami students said they are trapped in Israel as missile strikes between Israel and Iran escalate and all flights to and from the country are canceled indefinitely.
“We’re American, we’re not used to these kinds of things,” said Ariella Green, one of 22 UM students in Tel Aviv for a three-week internship program.
Late-night alerts and bomb shelters
Green described a harrowing experience during the final week of their trip when a missile alert jolted her awake in the middle of the night.
“All of a sudden at 3 a.m., my phone starts buzzing like crazy — you can kind of think of it as an Amber Alert in the States,” she said. “So I check my phone and it’s all in Hebrew. I hadn’t gotten a signal on my phone like that before while I’ve been here for the past three weeks.”
The alert warned them to take shelter immediately. Green said she and other students rushed to a nearby bomb shelter as sirens rang out across the city.
“We’re like waiting there and a bunch of Israelis on the street, near a bar, joined us,” she recalled. “We were sitting on the floor on mattresses and waiting until we got some sort of signal to leave.”
While such alerts typically last around 10 minutes, Green said they remained in the shelter for nearly an hour.
Students relocated, hope to return soon
On Saturday, the students were moved to a safer location. Though the experience has been distressing, Green says it has also brought a sense of solidarity.
“I’ve seen so much kindness as I’ve been going through this. Everyone checking in with each other to make sure people are okay,” she said. “A huge brotherhood and sisterhood is going on here right now — and I think we all kind of need that. It’s a family.”
Green said the group hopes to leave Israel by Monday or Tuesday, possibly flying out through another country as the situation allows.
