Ke­jan Hayes and

Matthew Chin

As fight­ing in­ten­si­fies in Is­rael, Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne has con­firmed a T&T na­tion­al study­ing there has been safe­ly evac­u­at­ed from that coun­try.

Dr Browne didn’t iden­ti­fy the stu­dent be­cause he did not have per­mis­sion from her par­ent to do so, but did in­di­cate she was a teenag­er study­ing in Is­rael.

By 4 pm lo­cal time yes­ter­day, the teen was on a flight out of Tel Aviv bound for Lon­don.

“She will be met by our diplo­mat­ic staff, and sub­se­quent­ly safe­ly con­veyed to her moth­er’s arms here in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Browne said in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia.

He said he spent the week­end work­ing to have her safe­ly re­moved af­ter her moth­er reached out to him, giv­en the out­break of mil­i­tary hos­til­i­ties be­tween the Is­raelis and Pales­tini­ans in that coun­try.

“We have been work­ing on this is­sue with the Min­istry of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs, via the per­ma­nent sec­re­tary and our Con­sular Af­fairs Di­vi­sion in col­lab­o­ra­tion with our diplo­mat­ic team in Lon­don at our high com­mis­sion there, as well as some ex­cel­lent con­tacts with the Eu­ro­pean Union via the EU am­bas­sador in Port-of-Spain,” Browne ex­plained.

But he was most­ly grate­ful the girl’s moth­er reached out ear­ly.

“The moth­er has been in reg­u­lar con­tact with me and our con­sular team through­out, and has demon­strat­ed ex­cel­lent at­trib­ut­es and ac­tions as a con­cerned par­ent,” he said.

Browne said if any na­tion­al has a fam­i­ly mem­ber seek­ing as­sis­tance giv­en the dire cir­cum­stances in Is­rael, they can:

Email: ttna­tion­al­sis­rael@for­eign.gov.tt

Call: (868) 285-5029, ext. 2199

But the teenag­er was not the on­ly Trinida­di­an who ex­pe­ri­enced the trau­ma of the at­tacks in Is­rael.

One na­tion­al, who on­ly want­ed to be iden­ti­fied as Ale­na, lives in a town not far from the cap­i­tal of Jerusalem.

With Sat­ur­day’s sur­prise in­cur­sion of Hamas mil­i­tants in­to Is­rael lead­ing to the mur­ders of hun­dreds of in­no­cent civil­ians, her peace­ful world has turned up­side down.

De­scrib­ing the es­ca­la­tion of vi­o­lence by Hamas, Ale­na said it is un­prece­dent­ed and the worse mas­sacre of civil­ian life on record there.

Ale­na, who has been in Is­rael for 20 years build­ing a new life for her­self and her fam­i­ly, de­scribed what has hap­pened since the at­tacks start­ed, say­ing one man she knew lost six mem­bers of his fam­i­ly.

“It hits hard in every di­rec­tion ... whole vil­lages had to be evac­u­at­ed—they’re now bat­tle­grounds. Peo­ple are dis­placed all across the coun­try, look­ing for places to stay. We got word from one gen­tle­man that lost six mem­bers of his fam­i­ly in one of the kib­butz­im.

“Grand­par­ents and chil­dren are be­ing lit­er­al­ly mur­dered in their homes, with­out mer­cy,” she said in tears.

More­over, fears of the eco­nom­ic con­se­quences that will spring dur­ing and af­ter the war alarm her.

“The eco­nom­ic back­lash of this is go­ing to be se­vere. No­body’s work­ing right now, we can’t…” she said.

Re­mem­ber­ing her time in Trinidad, she con­fessed the thought of re­turn­ing home had crossed her mind due to the cur­rent con­flict.

De­spite the on­go­ing trau­ma tragedy, how­ev­er, Ale­na said she will re­main in Is­rael, and is hope­ful peace will pre­vail be­tween the Is­raelis and Pales­tini­ans in the end.

Mean­while, Cari­com yes­ter­day con­demned the vi­o­lence in Is­rael say­ing, “The sav­age na­ture of the at­tacks and counter-at­tacks are the an­tithe­sis of civilised life and liv­ing.”

“(Cari­com) ab­hors the at­tacks in Is­rael and the counter-at­tacks in the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­to­ry of Gaza. Fur­ther, the sav­age na­ture of the at­tacks and counter-at­tacks are the an­tithe­sis of civilised life and liv­ing. In­no­cent lives are be­ing lost amidst the fer­vour and vi­o­lence of the ac­tu­al com­bat­ant,” a state­ment said.

Cari­com al­so said the re­cent round of hos­til­i­ties re­flects the pain and suf­fer­ing of an­cient quar­rels, adding the on­go­ing harsh con­di­tions un­der which the Pales­tini­ans live will con­tribute to a cy­cle of vi­o­lence un­til those re­al­i­ties are de­fin­i­tive­ly ad­dressed.

It said it will con­tin­ue to push for a two-state so­lu­tion as the best way to achieve com­pre­hen­sive peace, se­cu­ri­ty and tran­quil­li­ty be­tween Is­rael and Pales­tine.