Two students from Tiruchi, who were studying in Israel, were among the Indian nationals who returned home via Chennai on Friday night.
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They reached New Delhi on Friday morning on a special flight from Israel as part of Operation Ajay, launched by the Centre to rescue stranded Indians from the war-torn country. The students had taken refuge in bomb shelters in Tel Aviv as Hamas launched missile attacks.
Narrating their ordeal, Gurucharan Sudarshan, 28, of Woraiyur, who is pursuing PhD in Life Science at Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva from October 2019, said, “Since it was not safe to stay in private apartments, I moved to the university dormitory. Sirens were heard in the morning following which we took shelter inside a bunker. Somehow, we managed to move out of the battle zone.”
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He recalled how he had seen Israeli forces firing and fighting against the terrorists from a distance. “We were in bomb shelters, and we felt vibrations of the rockets falling,” he said.
Palaniappan Ramesh, 24, of Karumandapam, a cancer cell researcher at Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot from December 2022, said, “The attack was launched in the south of Israel, and I was staying far away from the conflict zone. I heard about the fierce attack and missiles being hurled from other Indians.”
He added that the Indian Embassy gave them a form to furnish details, and thereafter they received a confirmation mail from the embassy to board the special flight to New Delhi.
Upon arrival in Delhi, the Tamil Nadu government provided assistance to ensure their safe journey home. The students thanked the government for making arrangements for their safe return.