On February 28, Israel and the US launched air strikes on Iran. Iran, in turn, is striking Israel and US military bases in Middle Eastern countries.
It is already the 12th day of the war. A significant number of Azerbaijani citizens live in Israel, which is under rocket fire from Iran. In addition, there are also those who went as students and tourists.
We tried to find out how the war has affected the lives of Azerbaijanis in Israel.
Azerbaijani citizen of Israel, Yegana Salman, stated in a statement to Modern.az that most of our compatriots in this country live in central cities:
“Azerbaijanis live here in southern, northern, and central cities – Haifa and its vicinity, Tel Aviv. The majority are those who came from Baku. Those who came to the southern cities from Azerbaijan are mostly Ashkenazi Jews. One of the reasons for the large number of Azerbaijanis here is that they once formed families with Jews. Currently, Azerbaijanis living in Israel work in many fields. Among them are doctors, engineers, and businessmen. There are also many individuals who grew up in Azerbaijan working in the media. Teachers are not few, and there are many working in theater. Many musicians have moved here from Azerbaijan. I am not currently working, but I worked as an English teacher for 20 years".
Y. Salman also spoke about Amid Murtuzov, who lost his life yesterday as a result of the attacks:
“This young man came from the former settlement of Prishib (now Goytapa) in Jalilabad. There are many Jews from there who live in Israel today. Amid, an engineer by profession, had gone to work that day to supervise construction.
He left behind 3 children, 1 girl and 2 boys. Amid Murtuzov had dual citizenship. Such people do not leave Israel. Usually, all Israelis, wherever they are, try to return to Israel as soon as a war begins.
I can also give an example from myself. When the October 7 war began, my husband and I had tickets to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Since flights were not canceled, we flew to Budapest. If the situation worsened, my husband and I were thinking of going to Baku. Because they had said that the situation here would be prolonged and very complicated. However, although we had the option to go to Baku, we decided to return to Israel a week later. Because during wartime, one does not want to go to another country and become a refugee”.
Yegana Salman stated, based on information obtained from the diplomatic corps, that a separate flight has been opened for Azerbaijani students and tourists:
“Azerbaijani students in Israel and citizens who came as tourists are already leaving. They travel by car to the Egyptian border, and from there fly to Azerbaijan by plane. However, since March 9, a flight from Egypt to Georgia has also been opened. Azerbaijanis can also fly to Tbilisi on that flight. For 4 days now, they have been traveling from Egypt to Tbilisi, and from there to Baku”.
