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I escaped Iranian missiles and all the British government could do was give me a digestive biscuit

Getting out of Israel is a tricky task these days, but thanks to help from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs I managed to evacuate

June 20, 2025 11:48
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The Royal Jordanian Airline flight path dodged Israel and the Iranian missiles (Photo: J Prinsley)
4 min read

We’d spent the night in and out of the shelter. By 12:30am, deep underground, I found a patch of signal and opened X, hoping for updates on the strikes. Instead, balloons floated up my screen: it was my birthday. I’d forgotten.

The Ayatollah’s gift was a wave of ballistic missiles whistling overhead. But I was nearly out. That morning, after yet another dash to the shelter, I would be leaving Israel.

I was travelling with a delegation from South America, originally in the country for LGBTQ+ advocacy and Pride. The parade had been cancelled that Friday morning, after a night of sirens. I’d come to Israel to cover the party for this newspaper. But the stage was never used and the portaloos never needed. Rainbow flags still fluttered across Tel Aviv.

At dawn on Tuesday, a blacked-out minivan arrived to take a small group of us to the Jordanian border. The Israeli Foreign Ministry had arranged our exit. The British government, by contrast, had been absent. They didn’t even begin compiling a list of Brits in Israel until four days after the missiles started falling.

Topics:

Iran