{"id":14690,"date":"2024-01-26T12:49:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T12:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/these-ukrainian-teenagers-sought-refuge-from-war-in-israel-then-they-were-caught-up-in-the-horrors-of-hamas-attack\/"},"modified":"2024-01-26T12:49:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T12:49:03","slug":"these-ukrainian-teenagers-sought-refuge-from-war-in-israel-then-they-were-caught-up-in-the-horrors-of-hamas-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/26\/these-ukrainian-teenagers-sought-refuge-from-war-in-israel-then-they-were-caught-up-in-the-horrors-of-hamas-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"These Ukrainian teenagers sought refuge from war in Israel. Then they were caught up in the horrors of Hamas\u2019 attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

It was supposed to be a safe haven\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a new life for those seeking\u00a0refuge\u00a0from the turbulence of war. <\/p>\n

But when tens of thousands of Ukrainians fled to Israel\u00a0in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion, they had no idea of what the future would hold. <\/p>\n

With men aged 18 to 60 forbidden to leave Ukraine, the refugees were mostly women, children and the elderly. Among them, four courageous teenagers who arrived alone in Israel\u00a0to start a new life as a result of\u00a0Moscow\u2019s assault on\u00a0their homeland on February 24, 2022. <\/p>\n

Little more than a year and a half later, these young people found themselves\u00a0<\/strong>immersed in another conflict,\u00a0as\u00a0they study at a\u00a0boarding school just 8 miles from Gaza. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe day before was very peaceful,\u201d recalled Artem Karpin, 18,\u00a0of Hamas\u2019 attack on Israel on October 7.\u00a0\u201cI remember thinking I wasn\u2019t really ready with my homework and wondering how to postpone my deadlines.\u201d <\/p>\n

Karpin lives and studies at Kfar Silver, a youth village near Ashkelon, close to where Hamas militants infiltrated\u00a0the border\u00a0that Saturday morning. He is one of about 40 Ukrainian refugees to enrol there since Russia invaded\u00a0his country. <\/p>\n

Run by the global education charity World ORT, the \u201cvillage\u201d is effectively a sprawling complex for 1,090 children from challenging backgrounds\u00a0\u2013\u00a0including 250 boarders. <\/p>\n

Originally from\u00a0the southwestern city of\u00a0<\/strong>Odesa, Karpin had been visiting relatives in Israel\u00a0when Russia invaded Ukraine. His father gave him no choice but to stay put. <\/p>\n

Nearly 2,000 miles from his parents, Karpin,\u00a0then 16,\u00a0enrolled at Kfar Silver, where he soon began to learn the language, make friends and settle in. That was until life was upended again on October 7. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat morning we all ran from the dorms to the shelter in the school,\u201d he said. \u201cI was scared but not terrified. I was trying to talk it all through rationally and it really helped.\u201d <\/p>\n

Karpin was one of 63 of pupils on site that day, as was 18-year-old Michael Reider. <\/p>\n

Originally from Kyiv, Reider arrived in Israel in March 2022 following a gruelling journey from his homeland to Poland, where he spent a week on his own before flying out. <\/p>\n

On that\u00a0\u201cblack Shabbat\u201d\u00a0of October 7,\u00a0he\u00a0said: \u201cI woke up and there were a lot of sirens and rockets were flying. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had already experienced one invasion and now this was a second one. I don\u2019t know how to explain it\u00a0\u2013\u00a0I wasn\u2019t really afraid. I felt kind of angry and like I had the energy to fight.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pupils and staff remained in the shelter for hours as the unprecedented terror raged around them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were terrified. We knew very early that the situation was very bad, that there were a lot of terrorists.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Thousands of rockets\u2019<\/h2>\n

Friday had marked the end of a week-long\u00a0<\/strong>religious holiday, so fortunately very few pupils were at school, said Gofer. Most of the Ukrainian students, however, had nowhere else to be. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was sure the terrorists were going to come here to kill us,\u201d said Gofer,\u00a0who keeps the remains of a <\/strong>rocket which exploded on the school grounds on his desk. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had three people with personal pistols, which was nothing compared to the heavy ammunition the terrorists had. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw no helicopters, no police, no military\u00a0\u2013\u00a0I still don\u2019t understand why it took so long,\u201d said Gofer, <\/strong>referring to widespread reports on October 7 that the army and security forces took hours to react to the incursions. <\/p>\n

With no response to his repeated calls to the army and emergency services, who were dealing with ongoing attacks in multiple locations, Gofer finally called a bus company manager he knew. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me none of his bus drivers were willing to come\u2026 everyone was terrified.\u201d <\/p>\n

Two drivers\u00a0from the bus company\u00a0eventually volunteered to evacuate the children to another village further north, he added. \u201cThey told me if they\u2019re not out of here in two, three minutes they would go without the students.\u201d <\/p>\n

Karpin recalled: \u201cWe had several minutes to pack our clothes and run for the buses. I got the most essential stuff and that\u2019s it. In an hour or two we were in Netanya.\u201d <\/p>\n

Four days later, Karpin\u2019s parents, back in Ukraine, insisted that he leave Israel with other relatives for Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter three weeks I started to feel that I wanted to return\u00a0(to Israel),\u201d he said of his time in Greece and Germany. \u201cI missed my studies and my friends. It was getting a little safer in Israel, so I convinced my family I needed to get back.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018I was scared\u2019
\n<\/h2>\n

In common with some other foreign boarders, 17-year-old Maria, who asked not to give her surname\u00a0for privacy reasons,\u00a0was staying with a nearby \u201chost family\u201d\u00a0because of the religious holiday\u00a0when Hamas launched its assault on October 7. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt six in the morning we were all running to the shelter and you could hear sirens,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Originally from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv,\u00a0Maria and her younger brother\u00a0had\u00a0moved to their father\u2019s home\u00a0in Kyiv\u00a0following the Russian invasion.\u00a0Eventually\u00a0the two siblings\u00a0left the country via Moldova and flew to Israel. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen war broke out in Ukraine it was like life fell apart and this time it was very similar \u2013 I had flashbacks,\u201d she said. \u201cI was scared but also thought if I tried to distance myself as much as possible everything would be OK.\u201d <\/p>\n

She remained with the family, who live in Ashkelon, for several days before heading north to join the evacuees, including her brother. There they remained until last month\u00a0when they returned to the school. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mum was worried about us,\u201d she said, adding that their mother suggested they return home to Ukraine. <\/p>\n

\u201cI told myself I could go back but that I\u2019d be going back to war and I couldn\u2019t possibly know if it\u2019s safer. At the same time, I didn\u2019t want to leave Israel. I thought \u2018do I need to flee again to start life again once more?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

After lengthy family discussions, the siblings decided to stay. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways I\u2019d rather be here,\u201d said Maria. \u201cI just wish for my family to be brought together again in peace.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI understood that it was better to live in a country with no war,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

That all changed when he woke up at his friend\u2019s house in Ashkelon on October 7. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mum was really afraid of me being in Ashkelon but I was trying to explain that I had a bomb shelter here,\u201d he said, adding that Ukrainian homes are not equipped with so-called safe rooms. All Israeli homes built after 1993 must have such a shelter, designed to protect residents from rocket attacks. <\/p>\n

\u2018Everyone\u2019s on high alert\u2019<\/h2>\n

With the village now at \u201c95% operational,\u201d according to Gofer, counsellors, social workers and psychologists are on hand to support pupils\u00a0as they\u00a0navigate the mental and emotional fallout of the war. <\/p>\n

Kulyk said\u00a0he feels safe but admitted\u00a0that \u201csometimes it\u2019s really hard for me to live in Israel.\u201d However, he added: \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019ll go back to Ukraine. My main goal is to finish school right now.\u201d <\/p>\n

Many families and staff remain evacuated from their homes, while some teachers are serving in the IDF reserves. <\/p>\n

Rockets continue to fly, though less frequently, while some staff\u00a0\u2013\u00a0including Gofer\u00a0\u2013\u00a0now have access to long-range rifles. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s on high alert,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t afraid of sirens\u00a0\u2013\u00a0they\u2019re afraid of terrorists.\u201d <\/p>\n

And yet the situation has not dented the optimism and determination of these four youngsters. <\/p>\n

Both Maria and Kulyk are interested in studying international relations \u2013 something they are surely more qualified for than most teenagers. <\/p>\n

Reider has other ideas. \u201cWhen the war started here there was relative silence in Ukraine and my family felt more safe,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very worried\u00a0(about me)\u00a0but I didn\u2019t want to go back. I\u2019m a Jew and Israel is my country. If Israel calls me to the army, I\u2019ll go.\u201d\u00a0A period of military service is compulsory for most Israelis when they turn 18. <\/p>\n

Karpin plans to study electrical engineering in Israel. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go back home once I have two university degrees so I can work on rebuilding and improving Ukrainian infrastructure and make my country a safe and better place,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was supposed to be a safe haven\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a new life for those seeking\u00a0refuge\u00a0from the turbulence of war. But when tens of thousands of Ukrainians fled to Israel\u00a0in the wake of Russia\u2019s invasion, they had no idea of what the future would hold. With men aged 18 to 60 forbidden to leave Ukraine, the refugees were <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}