Having celebrated her film's selection at the Haifa Film Festival the previous evening, she woke up the next day to "deafening sounds of bombs going off", recounted Bollywood actor Nushrratt Bharuccha, who was briefly stuck in Tel Aviv as the war raged between Israel and Hamas.
Israel has been left reeling by Hamas's unprecedented ground, air and sea assault on Saturday that it has likened to the 9/11 attacks.
"We'd said our goodbyes and were ready to fly back the next day. But Saturday morning was nothing like the previous evening's celebration. We were woken up to the deafening sounds of bombs going off, a blaring siren, and complete and utter panic as we were all rushed down into a 'shelter' in the basement of our hotel," she said in a statement today.
"It was only when we emerged from in there, after what seemed like an endless wait, that we learnt that Israel was under attack. Nothing could have prepared us," she recounted.
Air India on Sunday said it had cancelled its flights to and from Tel Aviv till October 14.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Gaza civilians to get away from all Hamas sites, which he vowed to turn "to rubble".
The distance from her hotel to the Indian Embassy was barely 2 km, the actor said, adding that it seemed impossible with "dreadful sounds of explosions at very close range".
"There was open fire on vehicles on the roads and the situation out on the streets was 'extremely dangerous'. Just then, we heard a second siren go off and were rushed back down into the basement shelter," she continued, adding that their phone batteries were fast running out and they were beginning to lose cell network.
The 38-year-old actor, who was in Haifa for the screening of her film 'Akelli', said help came in from completely unexpected quarters: calls from her Israeli co-actors, Indian and Israeli embassies and a taxi driver.
"Our journey out of our Tel Aviv hotel was not easy, to put it mildly... praying the whole time, even crying sometimes, we held onto each other for courage to keep on going, somehow making it to Ben Gurion Airport. The wait between one formality to the next for boarding a flight has never been more excruciating," she said further.
The death count in Israel has surged above 900 from the worst attack in the country's 75-year history, while Gaza officials have reported 687 people killed so far.
"As someone who has barely escaped a war zone, I cannot be more grateful today...I'm back home and safe with my family and my loved ones. But with an experience that has made me immensely grateful for the safety and security that we almost take for granted. I am ever so grateful to Government of India, the Indian Embassy and the Israeli Embassy, for their help and guidance in bringing my team and me back safe," she said.
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