Tennessee church travelers safely evacuate war in Israel, some on US charter flight

All members of a traveling group from First Baptist Church in Knoxville have safely left Israel following the ferocious attack Oct. 7 from the Gaza Strip by Hamas militants that claimed more than 1,400 lives and disrupted travel throughout the region.

Some of members of the church group have already made it back to Knoxville.

Brent McDougal, senior pastor of First Baptist, told Knox News he left the country on a chartered U.S. evacuation flight from Tel Aviv to Athens, Greece, on Oct. 15 with a group of six church members. The last two travelers from the church group left Tel Aviv on Oct. 16 on a flight by Israel's national airline, El Al.

"I feel so relieved," McDougal said, speaking from Athens. "I definitely felt a burden for all of our group members and wanted to make sure that everyone was safe."

The earliest flight from Athens to Knoxville leaves on Oct. 18, and McDougal said his group expects to be back home that evening.

Four First Baptist travelers left Israel for Jordan last week, splitting off from the group to make private arrangements to get home. Among them was Alan Williams, a retired WVLT anchor, who arrived home to Knoxville with his wife on Oct. 14, the station reported.

The remaining eight members had booked return flights for later this week, but decided to leave the country early as Israel's war with Hamas escalated and a new front opened on Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for the attack have killed at least 2,600 in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials in the Palestinian enclave.

As Knoxvillians at home heard fighter jets fly over the city this weekend for the Vols football game against Texas A&M, the First Baptist Church group was hearing Israeli fighter jets crisscrossing the skies over Israel.

"We felt like, as many have seen in news reports, that the situation was becoming more and more volatile," McDougal said. "We had taken our group more in the direction of the north, thinking that would be away from the violence, but then, the threat of Hezbollah across the Lebanese border also became a concern. So, even in the north, we would hear sirens and just the constant overhead jets that we knew were either patrolling the northern border or heading to Gaza."

First Baptist group traveled through a war zone to the airport

McDougal drove a van full of travelers from northern Israel to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to catch the chartered flight. GPS services were down, so the group had to rely on highway signs to navigate to the airport, driving through a country that had become a war zone where violence could erupt at any second just miles away.

Once at the airport, McDougal said "incredibly helpful" officials from the U.S. embassy directed them to their flight, one of several chartered by the U.S. State Department to evacuate American citizens to Athens.

It was a bittersweet return for the travelers, who first arrived at the airport on Oct. 6, the day before Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that rules Gaza, launched an invasion of southern Israel, killing more than 1,400 people, predominately Israelis, and taking nearly 200 more hostage.

Though the airport has been a target of missile strikes, it also is aggressively protected by Israel's advanced "Iron Dome" defense system.

"Although we were nervous, you know, knowing that the airport and surrounding areas were targeted, we were so grateful when we were able to take off quickly and get out of the area," McDougal said. "We have so many good things to say about those that helped us through the U.S. embassy and the care they showed to people who were going through a really tense time."

The chartered flight, full of dazed U.S. citizens who unexpectedly found themselves in a war zone, was not a typical flight. In the rush to evacuate, there were no seat assignments and no luggage was loaded on the plane. McDougal said the group's luggage arrived a day later at their hotel in Athens.

The First Baptist Church group went to Israel intending to follow the historical footsteps of Jesus, but that itinerary was mostly put on hold as they tried to get away from the sudden attack.

Now, they have found themselves following the footsteps instead of the Apostle Paul, who preached to the early Christian church near the Acropolis.

"It's not where we want to be, but at the same time, we're grateful for the opportunity to extend our trip a little bit," McDougal said.

Tennessee church group leaves Israel ahead of likely ground invasion of Gaza

A historic mobilization of 360,000 Israeli reservists is preparing for a likely ground invasion of Gaza, the Palestinian territory that has been under the control of Hamas since 2007.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters used terrorist tactics in the bloodiest attack in Israel's history, Israel has killed nearly 3,000 Palestinian fighters and civilians in retaliatory airstrikes, including hundreds of children. It also has ordered an evacuation of the northern half of Gaza, where roughly 1 million people live, triggering what the United Nations described as a humanitarian disaster.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel on Oct. 16 for the second time in less than a week, renewing a pledge of U.S. support after touring six Arab nations in an attempt to deescalate what could become a larger diplomatic and military meltdown, according to The Associated Press.

The U.S. has sent two aircraft carriers to the Eastern Mediterranean near the Israeli coast and additional military aid to Israel, and warned Israeli foes, particularly Iran, to stay out of the conflict.

The State Department said at least 30 Americans have been killed in the war and 13 more are missing.

As hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza fled from airstrikes and feared a coming ground invasion, the AP reported President Joe Biden was considering traveling to Israel, though no travel plans were finalized.

Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Phone 423-637-0878. Email daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com.

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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee church group evacuates Israel as war with Hamas escalates