Gates of Hades: Israel Tour Interrupted by Terrorists

By Jerry Harrison

J. Harrison and his oldest son were enjoying a long-anticipated tour of the holy land in Israel when the unthinkable occurred – Israel came under attack from Gaza by Hamas terrorists.
Prior to the attack, J. Harrison and his son had explored a number of biblical sites, such as Caesarea Maritima (where the apostle Paul was imprisoned), Nazareth (boyhood home of Jesus), the Sea of Galilee (where Jesus walked on water, and calmed the storm), and En Gedi (where David hid from King Saul). Photos and detailed descriptions of the locations they visited and their significance in the bible are included that make their tour experiences come alive for readers.
While visiting the En Gedi site, the tour company announced that, to protect tourists from possible harm from terrorists, the tour would be terminated that day. Tour members could sign up for bus rides to Jordan the next day, from which they could access the International Airport in Amman for airline flights.
After signing up for the evacuation bus rides, J. Harrison, his son and the other tour members were bused back to Jerusalem. En route to Jerusalem, the bus passed a recent rocket hit near the road.
After arriving in the hotel in Jerusalem, air raid alarms went off outside in the streets and the tourists, including J. Harrison and his son, were sheltered in the safe room of the hotel, two stories below ground level, before the "all clear" message was given to them some 45 minutes later.
The next morning, J. Harrison, his son, and other tour members were bused to an entry point into Jordan, and then to hotels in Amman, Jordan. The following day, J. Harrison and his son took Egypt Air flights to Cairo, Egypt and to Washington, D.C. and an American Airlines flight from there to home in the Carolinas.
All bus rides, hotel rooms, and airline reservations related to emergency evacuations for tour members were handled by the tour company. Thanks to Pilgrim Tours!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798350946277

Book preview

Foreword

My oldest son and I purchased a 10-day tour of the Holy Land for Christian tourists that was scheduled for Oct. 3–12, 2023. The first half of the tour was extremely interesting, but Hamas terrorists attacked Israel from the Gaza strip during our tour on Oct. 7, 2023. The tour was subsequently terminated and my son and I were evacuated out of Israel through Jordan and Egypt to our home country—the United States.

Even though we were deprived of half of our scheduled tour, which was to include visiting the old city of Jerusalem, our perceptions of the lives and environment of the people of Jesus’ time were expanded enormously during the few days we enjoyed prior to evacuation. Most of this book focuses on the sometimes surprising and always interesting details of the things we saw and learned in the days we were able to tour the countryside and visit biblical sites in Israel. Our evacuation from Jerusalem through Amman, Jordan and Cairo, Egypt was planned, coordinated and implemented by our tour company.

Exactly halfway through our scheduled tour, we were having breakfast in a hotel on the Sea of Galilee when the people in the southern part of Israel found themselves under a ferocious air, land and sea attack from Hamas, a terrorist organization operating out of the Gaza Strip.

Those of us on our tour were briefed that morning that Israel had been attacked, but the tour company was unaware of the seriousness of the situation at that early stage of the conflict. The tour guide told us that Israelites have learned to live with terrorist attacks every few years and we should not be concerned.

Our Israeli tour company subsequently concluded that completing the tour could endanger the tourists they were hosting, so unknown to us, they immediately began making plans to evacuate our tour group out of Israel.

During the afternoon of Oct. 9, we were told that the tour would be ended that day and that we would be bused to Jerusalem; also, plans were being made to offer us a bus ride from Jerusalem to nearby Amman, Jordan the next day. Further details of our evacuation out of Israel are provided in the final pages of this book. Our tour company did an outstanding job of moving us quickly and safely out of Israel—thank you Pilgrim Tours!

NOTE 1: In recognition of the fact that this book may be read by individuals from a variety of religions, explanations have been added for some terms that are basic to some religions but may be informative for readers of other religions. Examples are the Menorah, the Torah and Masada.

NOTE 2: I researched and fact-checked information via the internet numerous times as I wrote this book, which resulted in a few minor additions and a couple of modifications to the information I gathered from our tour guide and various descriptions posted in the national parks (biblical sites) during the tour. I encourage readers to Google/research topics that interest them.

Our ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Holy Land Trip Begins

Our trip to Israel to tour the Holy Land had been meticulously planned for 12 months in advance. The scheduled air travel from Charlotte, N.C. to Tel Aviv, Israel was to leave on Oct. 3, 2023 and the return flight was scheduled for Oct. 12, 2023. I was accompanied by my oldest son, Philip; neither of our wives accompanied us on this trip.

Our tour company, Pilgrim Tours, handled all airline, hotel and bus reservations for us; we flew from Charlotte, N.C. to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Tel Aviv on Delta Airlines with no delays. The 11+ hour flight from Atlanta to Tel Aviv was a long haul and when a meal was served, I was reminded again of the deregulation of U.S. airlines, which occurred in 1978. To reduce costs, the airlines cut back on many things, including the quality of their meals and even the utensils