What started as an exciting adventure to the Holy Land for a Cambridge church group quickly turned to horror when Hamas unleashed a string of deadly terrorist attacks on Israel late last week.
Fortunately, the arduous journey back home ended safely Friday night when two vans pulled into St. Gregory's Catholic Parish.
Suha Aaljalo was one of the residents to spill out of the vans and into the arms of loved ones waiting outside.
At first when she heard about the attacks while on the trip, she wasn't concerned for her safety and was texting her family that everything was fine. Having grown up in Iraq until the age of 10, the sights and sounds of war were sadly nothing she hadn't experienced before.
But her sense of calm changed days later when she began hearing the warning sirens blasting overhead. Situated roughly 70 kilometres from Gaza, it started to become too close for comfort.
"The thing I was worried about was if it expanded more," Aaljalo said.
"The last day I hear the sirens, I was scared that time. I thought, oh my, maybe we'll be stuck here many months. Every time I'm thinking about my family here, what if we lost our lives there?"
At that point, the group attempted to flee the country, both to Jordan and Egypt but those plans were quickly halted when borders were closed off.
Worried about potential airport closures, the group seemed to be running out of options to get to safety.
Then, the message came through that the Canadian government was sending in planes to bring people back home. While they had to spend the night in the airport, the turnaround was swift.
"I woke up the last day and saw the message," Aaljalo said.
"I was shaking. When the plane took off, oh my gosh. There's nothing like home."
Mina Shaabo was there to welcome Aaljalo and says the entire experience reinforced how lucky she feels to be Canadian.
"We're so thankful that we live here and that we're Canadians because the government took care of us," Shaabo said.
"We didn't even expect it, we never thought they would do something like that and bring in an aircraft. Now we understand very well how warm a family we are, how united we are."
Noor Sabah was another resident that was a nervous wreck waiting at home hoping her mother, aunt, uncle and cousin would arrive safely.
Much like Aaljalo, Sabah's mother was the one with the calming presence.
"At the beginning she was calming us down," Sabah said.
"Then you could sense the nervousness in her voice. After that, she shut down and just wanted to talk when she got home."
Sabah said every day was "a nightmare" waiting for answers. She called the emergency line daily but wasn't able to get much information until yesterday when she found out about the plane.
"I'm happy they're coming home."
