BLUE ASH — An Ohio family is back home after being caught in the middle of the escalating tensions between Israel and Iran.
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Shiri Ayalon and her son Reuben Grote traveled to Israel, where she was born, and still has family that lives there, according to our news partner, WCPO TV, in Cincinnati.
They had been traveling to Italy to celebrate Reuben’s high school graduation before heading to a suburb of Tel Aviv to visit family.
“A missile attack happened basically the same day, but later in the evening. That was scary, it was a very loud bang,” said Grote. “There was even a bit of shrapnel right here on our street where we are.”
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They were originally scheduled to leave Israel on June 18 and return to Cincinnati on June 19. But the missile attacks forced Israel to close its airspace.
The journey included a bus ride to the Jordan border, followed by a taxi to Aqaba and multiple flights, WCPO said.
She told Cincinnati media outlets at CVG Airport that she will need to take time to process what happened and rest after returning home.
“I just did not think it was going to take that long,” said Ayalon. “I thought it was going to take 24 hours or something. We didn’t expect it to be 72 hours, which is how long it took us until we touched the ground. I didn’t expect all the wild things that happened, both positive and negative.”
Grote is visiting family in South Carolina, WCPO reports.
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