ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- After days of delays leaving dozens stranded amid fighting between Israel and Islamic extremists, an Air Astana aircraft that took off from Tel Aviv landed on October 11 in Kazakhstan's largest city with 166 people on board, triggering waves of tears, relief, and gratitude in the airport arrivals area.
Air Astana Vice President Adil Dauletbek told journalists in the waiting room of Almaty’s international airport that all 124 Kazakh citizens who were waiting in Tel Aviv to be repatriated made the flight, along with 42 nationals from other countries. Similar scenes played out at airports around the world.
"We were very afraid. I saw rockets and heard explosions. We were shocked. I wanted to go home," said a relieved Olga Rodina, who was in Israel to visit relatives, as she entered the arrivals area.
"Airlines didn't know what to do, whether to fly or not. Ours acted very quickly. Everything was very well organized.... There is no limit to our joy. After flying, we all hugged, kissed, and even cried because we were very afraid."
An incursion by Hamas -- designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU -- into Israel on October 7, backed by a barrage of missiles, has triggered an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, a narrow sliver of land that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, leaving hundreds of dead on both sides.
Almaty resident Zhanna, who came to meet her sister at the airport, told RFE/RL that just before the fighting broke out, her sister was in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, which has been repeatedly targeted by Hamas missile strikes in the past few days.
The Kazakh Embassy did "a very good job" in getting people out, she said after embracing her younger sister at the airport.
"We were 250 kilometers away from the border [with Gaza] when the war started. On our way to Tel Aviv, we saw explosions and tanks. I was so scared that my body became ice cold. We left our relatives [and] friends there, and we worry about them," the sister, who did not give her name, said.
Umit Zheldibai was in Israel to get medical treatment when the fighting broke out.
She says some Kazakh citizens who were with her in an unspecified city in Israel to get medical assistance were unable to leave the country due to their illnesses and pending surgeries.
"They are now hiding from missiles in the hospital's shelter," Zheldibai said.
Similar flights have been recorded across Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Hungary said on October 9 that it had already brought back 325 people from Israel, while on October 11 Moldova said it has helped fly back almost 200 of its citizens along with about 400 other passengers, mostly Ukrainian and Israeli nationals.