Irish pilgrims visiting Israel trying to 'get home as soon as possible'

Smoke rises from an explosion caused by an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip. Picture: AP Photo/Hatem Moussa

A group of Irish pilgrims visiting Israel are trying to "get home as soon as possible" after Hamas launched a surprise attack against the country on Saturday.

Michael Kelly, editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper, said the group were on the outskirts of Jerusalem when they heard sirens indicating that there had been rocket attacks. 

The attack caught Israel’s military and intelligence apparatus completely off guard, bringing heavy battles to its streets for the first time in decades, and Israel formally declared war on Sunday.

So far, around 700 people have been killed in Israel, and nearly 500 have been killed in Gaza. Palestinian militant groups also claim to be holding more than 130 captives from the Israeli side.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Kelly recalled the "nerve-wracking" experience.

"People were getting messages from home, from family members who were seeing the attacks on television and were obviously concerned. So we moved very, very quickly to try to get everyone back to the hotel and keep everyone calm. And everyone was able to contact loved ones at home," he said. 

It was a very grim experience, one could feel the tension in the air, one could feel the uncertainty. Local people really were just shaking their heads.

Mr Kelly said everyone he had spoken to was expecting more Israeli casualties and he said it was also obvious that there would be more casualties in Gaza too.

“People are looking at the whole thing with trepidation because the situation is so unprecedented. 

"Normally, there's a certain rulebook around these things. Normally one would say Hamas will fire rockets into Israel, Israel will fire some rockets back. And then usually very quickly it calms down again. Egypt intervenes, Qatar intervenes, the United States. 

But because of the nature of this, I think no one really knows where this is going to go. It's very obvious on the highways and the roads, even in the north of Israel, that there's an enormous troop mobilisation.

“We passed a very long line of two convoys yesterday [Sunday] in the Galilee region. 

"And you can see bus stops at various junctions a lot of young men and young women reserve soldiers who have been called up and are waiting there at the junction, one presumes to be to be taken to the army bases or to the front at Gaza, because the Israelis think they've already amassed 100,000 troops there on the southern border," he said.

Mr Kelly said his group had been scheduled to return to Ireland on Thursday, but they were trying to get home on Tuesday.

“People are anxious. They have never been in a situation like this. So we're doing our best to try to keep people calm, but obviously we don't want to expose people to the risk as well. 

"There was a consensus when we met with the groups last night that people would like to try to get home as soon as possible.”