MARCH 19 • 2020 | 35

then the plot thickened.
“Dear customer, your flight 
from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt/
Main on Sunday is canceled,” 
the email from Lufthansa 
read laconically. “Please 
accept our apologies. We are 
looking for alternatives and 
will be in touch shortly with a 
solution.”
Needless to say, they 
weren’
t.
So, there I was, stuck near 
Gaza, with no car, no spare 
clothes, no place to stay, no 
flight home and under strict 
orders to not spend time in 
public.
The new instructions 
affected 70,000 Israelis, so 
the hotlines were, naturally, 
collapsing. When I finally got 
ahold of someone, I became 
even more confused. 
“You are allowed to leave 
the country, but not the 
current place you’
re staying 
at,” said the representative. 
Unless, they offered, “some-
one can take you through the 
entire route until the check-in 
counter.”
Great. Even the Mossad 
couldn’
t save me now. My 
phone buzzed again. A guy 
named Lukas was on the 
other end. In a thick German 
accent, he said he was part of 
the coronavirus emergency 
team for my company, the 
English-language German 
news organization Deutsche 
Welle. 
“We’
re getting you on the 
next flight,” Lukas said. “The 
embassy is briefed. Can you 
leave tonight?” 
I couldn’
t. “Tomorrow 
morning?” he insisted. It was 
already 8 p.m. “Let me run to 
our travel agents,” he added. 
A race against time began.
My friend drove me to the 

nearest train station, where 
I wasn’
t allowed to board a 
train. A man then offered me 
a ride to Tel Aviv after seeing 
me in distress, and a taxi 
driver volunteered to take me 
from Tel Aviv all the way to 
Haifa.
This entire time, my editors 
in Germany were calling, as 
well as people working for 
the Israeli embassy in Berlin. 
A friend agreed to take me 
from the taxi station to my 
mother’
s home in Haifa and 
drive me to the train station 
afterward. When the last train 
had run, another taxi driver 
let me hitch a ride with his 
son to Tel Aviv. 
Complete strangers con-
nected me with doctors who 
guided me over the phone on 
how to behave and what to 
avoid. Finally, I made it to the 
airport check-in counter, just 
as I was told.

NO END IN SIGHT
The outbreak itself is far 
from curbed. With more 
than 180,000 cases confirmed 
worldwide, and more than 
255 in Israel, Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu has 
ordered schools and univer-
sities shuttered. President 
Donald Trump has banned 
all flights from Europe to the 
U.S., and the global death toll 
stands at more than 6,700. All 
numbers are from March 16.
Scientists at Israel’
s Institute 
for Biological Research are 
furiously developing a vac-
cine. In the meantime, please 
listen to all public health 
guidelines. And wash your 
hands. 

Dana Regev is an Israeli-born journal-
ist who reports on global affairs for 
Deutsche Welle in Germany.







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