Israelis rush home to volunteer in fight against Hamas: ‘I’ll do whatever I can’

At least 100 people have travelled from the UK to Israel to serve in the Israeli military following the attacks by Hamas, joining others from around the world. Bel Trew and Namita Singh speak to those ready to take up arms

Anafa Ifshitcl was in Kathmandu when the news of the attack by Hamas in Israel broke last Saturday. With no direct flights to her home country, she took a 22-hour bus travelling around 1,100km from Nepal to India’s capital Delhi.

“I just got a flight back to Israel, [almost] all of the flights got cancelled,” she tells The Independent, standing in a dingy back street near Chabad House, a Jewish community centre in the heart of the city. “I hope I make it to Israel because a lot of my friends were kidnapped in the [Supernova] party or died.”

Ifshitcl’s brother, who is serving in the Israeli army, is among those who disappeared in the weekend’s fighting and has possibly been taken hostage, she tells The Independent. “We don’t know what happened with him or with his team … This is just a terrible situation.”

Having already served two years in the Israeli army, she is now racing to return in the hopes of serving again.

“I plan to come back to Israel and do whatever I can,” she says. “If it’s not in the army and they don’t need me because they have enough people, then there are so many other things to do.”

The killing of more than 1,200 people in the carnage by Hamas on 7 October was followed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of war against Gaza as he vowed to exact revenge.

It has been followed by hundreds of retaliatory Israeli strikes from air and sea, leading to the death of over 1,400 people in Gaza.

Israel has also announced a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off water, food and power to the enclave that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, until the hostages are freed. A ground offensive by the Israeli military is widely expected to follow.

Israeli police and security forces assist a journalist taking cover during an alert for a rocket attack in the southern city of Sderot near the border with Gaza on Thursday (AFP/Getty)

The Israeli military says it has seen a huge response to its call for 360,000 reservists to mobilise, with men and women like Ifshitcl flocking back to their home country from all over the world.

At least 100 people are believed to have travelled from the UK to Israel to serve in the military. The Israeli embassy in London said it was understood those who travelled were “reservists and active duty soldiers” in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

“We have had a 150 per cent attendance of reservists,” IDF spokesperson Major Nir Dinar tells The Independent. “That means people who haven’t been called up came. I saw an 80-year-old who served in the IDF spokesperson unit during 1973 [the Yom Kippur war] turn up for duty, he said no one called him – ‘I just came’.”

Israelis living abroad are trying to respond to the aftermath of the attack in other ways as well. Those who cannot return are raising contributions to buy military gear, clothing, food and household supplies for families back home.

A young boy walks past felled trees and destroyed structures in Gaza City on Thursday (AFP/Getty)

Rabbi Jonathan Leener told the Reuters news agency that he received a total of $5,000 within an hour of putting out a call for donations among his small Brooklyn synagogue community.

It was enough to buy supplies including sleeping bags and toiletries that he aims to donate to the IDF.

"I think people here feel somewhat helpless being so far away, so the response from people has been really dramatic in the best way possible," the rabbi said, noting that many community members have immediate family in Israel.

Philanthropists and members of the business community have pledged monetary donations to support humanitarian efforts in the country.

A woman mourner reacts outside the morgue of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Thursday (AFP/Getty)

Billionaire investor Yuri Milner said on Tuesday that his philanthropic foundation would donate $5m to the Jewish Agency for Israel, a non-profit organisation, to provide emergency aid and long-term rehabilitation.

Mike Bloomberg promised to match all donations to Magen David Adom, an Israeli disaster relief and emergency medical service organisation. Bloomberg had matched $7.5m of donations as of Wednesday, a spokesperson said.

The Israeli army has said it is ready for a ground incursion into Gaza as soon as it gets the political green light, even as the United Nations warned of an unfolding “humanitarian catastrophe” in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Danielle Alarme (left) and Achana Chasnao cut short their six-month-long trip to India to return to Israel (Namita Singh/The Independent)

Tamara al-Rifai, spokesperson for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, said nearly 180,000 displaced people, fleeing airstrikes, had taken shelter in 88 UN schools in Gaza in just two days.

No humanitarian aid has been getting in because of Israel’s total siege and the fact the border with Egypt had been closed. “It is a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding,” she said.

Additional reporting by agencies