Canadian hockey player stuck in Israel amid war with Iran

A Canadian government account on WhatsApp has told Canadians in Israel not to depend on officials to get them out. Adrian Ghobrial report.

Timothy Payne went to Israel to play hockey, though his daily routine now includes sprinting on dry land through a pressure-packed warzone from bomb shelter to bomb shelter.

Payne is one of 15 Canadians who play in the Israel Elite Hockey League (IEHL). He says nothing could have prepared him for the week of war he’s just endured. The 29-year-old arrived in Israel one week before the war with Iran began – then “all hell broke loose” he said.

“It’s scary as all hell. You hear the sirens. You hear the rockets,” he added, speaking to CTV News from Tel Aviv.

A defenceman for the Jerusalem Capitals, the constant explosions has taken a toll on his mental health. Desperate to get home to the safety of Toronto, Payne is at a loss when pondering his current situation. “I’m just here to play hockey and now I’m caught in the midst of war,” he said in disbelief.

Canadians trying to leave Israel have received the same message on an Emergency Government of Canada WhatsApp page.

“Please be aware that at this time, the Government of Canada is not facilitating any assisted departures. You should not depend on the Government of Canada to help you leave the country,” it reads in part.

That message to Canadians, caught in the vise-grip of war, comes at a time when the U.S. State Department has began working on a plan to evacuate U.S. citizens from Jerusalem. Germany has been organizing flights for German nationals to leave Israel via Jordan.

Payne says no such help has been offered by the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The Torontonian has said he and others have looked into taking a boat to Cyprus, but space on the boats has been limited and he hasn’t been able to secure one of the pricey tickets. He says he’s pondered trying to cross by land into Jordan, but he’s worried about the security risks involved with the long drive out in the open to reach the crossing.

The hockey player says he and his fellow Canadians feel like they’re “just sitting ducks, night after night, bombing after bombing,” adding that “our neighbours down the street (in Tel Aviv) got hit by a rocket, our windows shattered, the shockwave hit our house and our drywall came down.”

‘Sick to my stomach’

Payne and his teammates have flipped their sleeping schedule, rest during the calm of day so they’re alert and ready to run in the evening and in the darkness of night, when the sirens, warning of an incoming missile begin to sound.

“11 p.m., 12 a.m. hits, the sirens start going off and they keep going off. We don’t have a bomb shelter where we live. We have to go down the stairs and 200 metres down the street from where we live to get to a (bomb) shelter,” said Payne, who also shared that many times he’s found himself “sprinting down the street and I’m hearing rockets go overhead.”

He knows the war is also taking a toll on his family and mother back home in Canada. “It makes me sick to my stomach, thinking about how she must feel, the sleepless nights, I’ve got to get back to her.”

The 29 year old is now pleading with the Canadian Government to find a way to assist Canadians to get out of Tel Aviv.

CTV News asked Global Affairs Canada if any plans are in the works to begin evacuating Canadians out of Israel. It did not respond by our deadline.

Concerned about what the days ahead may have in store, Payne said he’s “praying for an end” to the fighting, though he fears that “it’s only going to get worse, and we’re going to be stuck here for weeks or even months.”