Many of the worst stories of the October 7 massacre came from a Nova party in which hundreds of Israelis were murdered and dozens were kidnapped. As part of attempts to help survivors of the same party, many of them arrived in recent weeks at a hotel in Cyprus, voluntarily by the owners of the Israeli hotel, in order to provide them with treatments that would help them cope with the situation.
One of the groups that completed a five-day treatment at the hotel on Thursday was supposed to fly to Israel at 22:20 p.m. from Cyprus. When they left the hotel, they were informed that the flight was delayed to 2am.
Nuba survivors stranded at Cyprus airport, photo: uncredited
The group of 89 people, including 19 caregivers and, as mentioned, 70 survivors of the party, accepted the rejection and waited at the airport. After a few hours at the airport, they realized that they would not take off even at 2 a.m. and so the long hours of departure continued until 8 a.m.
An El Al pilot went out to talk to the passengers and explained to them that the reason was a chain of malfunctions in the company's planes. The survivors and caregivers were transferred to a nearby hotel only at 8 a.m., and at the same time were told that they might not be returned to Israel until Saturday night, almost 48 hours after the original flight time.
In conversations with some of the members of the delegation, they say: "There were terrible tantrums of the survivors who are having to go through a horrific experience at the moment, it was terrible, they say they abandoned them again, they screamed at the caregivers and blamed them, it was a very difficult hour at the airport in Cyprus and now they are left without a proper and considerate response. Ask about sending another plane, another plane, it shouldn't interest anyone, the survivors need to be treated differently and sensitively, there's no way it will continue like this, many of the survivors feel that they are simply being abandoned."
Nuba survivors stranded at Cyprus airport, photo: uncredited
El Al said in response: "Flight LY5134, scheduled to take off from Larnaca to Tel Aviv, had an unexpected malfunction prior to takeoff. After many efforts to fix the malfunction we had to cancel the flight. We apologize to passengers for the inconvenience and waiting and emphasize that EL AL prioritizes the safety and security of passengers and crew. Passengers have been dispersed to hotels and will be updated on the new departure date."
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