Students and professors camping inside a university in southern Israel were among those struck by terror following the surprise attack carried out by Hamas on October 7. An associate professor with the Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), Dr Rathika, was among this group.
"We had to shift to a shelter whenever we received a message and return when it was safer to stay on campus," she told over the phone to her husband Dr Ramesh, who is a professor at TNAU.
She had gone to Israel, along with researchers from other parts of the country, for a two-month training program at Ben-Gurion University at Negev, about 100 km from the airport, in southern Israel.
"She was scared during the first two days. Presently, she is okay though she feels panicky whenever friends in Tamil Nadu send her reports pertaining to her," Ramesh told The New Indian Express online.
Rathika is eagerly awaiting to board the flight home from war-hit Israel.
"I have been in touch with my wife through messages since Monday. She is fine and safe but is under stress. She wants to come home. I request the government and the Prime Minister to rescue her and bring her to India under Operation Ajay. My 14-year-old son is also eager to meet his mother."
"She contacted the Indian Embassy seeking help to fly home. They assured her that her request was under process. We are waiting for their call. I hope she gets through this. I am expecting her back home within a day or two," he said.
"The officials from the Indian Embassy have contacted her and asked her to stay safe and keep her mobile phone switched on so that it would help them to contact and inform her about her flight home," Ramesh said.
"Presently, the students and professors are staying on campus, each in their respective rooms and they are feeling safe. It was not so during the first couple of days soon after the Hamas struck Israel. When they were not in the shelter, they were huddled close together on the campus during the first two days," he noted.
They have food, drinking water and all the other facilities on the campus. However, the university is not functioning anymore.
"Right now she is staying, 100 km away from the airport, at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ( a public research university in Beersheba, Israel)," he added.
Meanwhile, as the Israel-Hamas conflict entered the seventh day on Friday the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Friday warned civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate their homes.
The IDF is looking to intensify its attacks on terrorist targets in the Gaza City region and possibly launch a ground invasion in response to Hamas's deadly onslaught against southern communities the Times of Israel reported.
The IDF said that it had carried out airstrikes against 750 targets belonging to Hamas and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip overnight. Israel is responding to the Hamas' attack on October 7 that has left over 1,300 Israelis dead.