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Calgary resident David Wallach said he’s feeling mixed emotions after recently returning home from Israel, a week after it was targeted in a Hamas terrorist attack that left 1,300 dead.
Wallach, who has dual Canadian-Israeli citizenship and was visiting family and friends in Tel Aviv earlier this month, landed back in Calgary Saturday at 6 p.m., ending a two-day journey home that included four flights.
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“From my perspective, it was very tough to leave,” he said. “(My wife and I) both have family there, we have friends there and we spent a big chunk of our lives there before we immigrated to Canada. It’s tough to leave them behind knowing the unknown and that every day it can change.
“But there’s a sense of relief – my wife, my daughter, her partner and others are safe now that they’re here in Canada.”
Wallach and his family arrived in Israel on Wednesday, Oct. 5 – two days before Hamas militants ambushed the country in a series of surprise attacks on the final day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot.
Those initial assaults have spurred retaliatory airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and vows of a “complete siege” ground offensive from Israel’s military.
As of Saturday, reports put the Israeli death toll from the Hamas ambush at at least 1,300. Meanwhile, the Palestinian health ministry claimed more than 2,215 civilians have been killed in Gaza amid Israel’s retaliation – sparking evacuations of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
“Rockets hit not too far from us”
Wallach said he woke to the sound of explosions and sirens from his hotel in Tel Aviv on the day of the surprise attack from Hamas, but didn’t think anything was too out of the ordinary at first.
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“Unfortunately, that can happen from time to time in Israel, so we didn’t put that much thought into it,” he said.
“But then we (turned on) the TV and realized it was something on a completely different scale and a completely different way of war.”
Once the family learned more about what was going on, Wallach said he was filled with anger and a sense of revenge. Throughout the day on Oct. 7, he said they continually heard sirens informing people to find shelter as the multi-pronged Hamas attacks continued.
“Rockets hit not too far (from us) – just two blocks from our hotel,” he said. “The TV started broadcasting all that was happening in the south and the savage, brutal behaviour of the terrorists.
“That’s when we realized this was a completely different war.”
While he personally wanted to stay in Israel, Wallach said he quickly realized with his wife and daughter alongside him, it was in his family’s best interest to find a way back to Canada.
The family departed Haifa in northern Israel on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. They were initially evacuated to Larnaca in Cyprus, but couldn’t find any flights out of the small island nation on Friday.
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They eventually boarded a flight to Athens, before flying to Rome and then, finally, Calgary from the Italian capital on Saturday.
Now back in Canada, where he’s lived for 25 years, Wallach said he’s still in touch multiple times a day with his family and friends in Israel. He’s watching news broadcasts from Israel to stay informed of the ongoing conflict and raising money to buy products for people in need.
“Our role is to tell the truth – to tell of the horrific, barbaric behaviour and what they’ve done there, to make the world understand what has happened,” he said.
“I hope the world understands now the magnitude of what they’ve done. The fact is, since 1944 and the Nazi regime, there wasn’t one day when so many Jews were killed in one day because they were Jews. I think the world has to realize they have to support Israel or just shut up and let Israel deal with its problems.”
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