My wife (Debbie) and I were excited about visiting Israel. We entered the country on the 23rd of February after 12 days in Egypt and Jordan. We had been planning this trip for years, but the attacks of October 7th, 2023, and subsequent military actions made it too unsafe to travel.

I finally decided that things had settled down enough that it was safe to go…I was wrong! The first 5 days were filled with marvelous experiences: a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, renewing our wedding vows at Cana (where Jesus turned water into wine), seeing the birth sites of Jesus and John the Baptist – just a few of the incredible events that we had waited so long to see.

On Saturday, 28 Feb, everything changed. We were staying in a hotel in Jerusalem and were on a bus to the Mount of Olives when our phones started blaring alarms about incoming rockets from Iran. Air raid sirens sounded and our tour guide was informed that Israel had launched an attack in Iran. He had us return to the hotel to take shelter. Over the course of the day, we ventured out briefly to see some more sites: the path Jesus took to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the garden of Gethsemane, the shrine where Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, the rock where Jesus prayed on the night he was betrayed and a few more.

The rocket attacks from Iran were frequent, so we took shelter wherever we could until the “all clear” sounded. Though I had experienced events like this in my military career, it was a bit unnerving having my wife in the middle of this war zone. We witnessed two Israeli “Iron Dome” interceptors launch and heard the explosions overhead as they successfully engaged Iranian rockets. Only a few of the explosions were close enough to raise our alarm and we continued to hear them throughout the day and night from our hotel room.

On Sunday, our tour company arranged for us to travel by bus to Amman, Jordan, where we eventually flew back to the US. Jordan was also being attacked by Iran so we continued to hear the air raid sirens from our hotel room.

Our flight on Monday was one of the few that left – Jordanian airspace had been shut down intermittently and almost all flights into and out of the country were cancelled. Thankfully, ours was not! All in all, this was an experience we’ll never forget – the fulfillment of a dream to visit the Holy Land…along with an up close and personal view of the conflict that continues to rage.

Our “once in a lifetime” encounter with rockets is sadly a frequent occurrence for the people who live there. We’re grateful for our safe return and prayerful that peace will eventually be restored in that troubled region.

Tom Jones

Pictured are Tom and Debbie Jones at the Sea of Galilee