‘Left in the dark’: Windsor man stuck in Tel Aviv still waiting on help from Ottawa

A Windsorite trapped in Tel Aviv a full week after conflict between Israel and Iran flared up.

A Windsorite trapped in Tel Aviv says he’s finally heard from Canadian officials, but he’s still stuck in a region on edge, a full week after conflict between Israel and Iran flared up.

Panagiotis Mavridis travelled to Israel earlier this month to run a hockey team in the Israeli Hockey League.

He landed June 3, expecting a summer of beach days and game nights.

But everything changed ten days later.

“I was here for a week and a half without any sirens, nothing like that. It was very chill,” said Mavridis.

“Now there’s sirens every day.”

The 21-year-old says there were up to five alerts a night at the height of the attacks, forcing him and a dozen teammates to shelter repeatedly in a Tel Aviv hotel bunker.

“We were going on literally two hours of sleep, three hours of sleep a night,” he said.

That tension began June 13, when Israel launched a surprise strike on Iranian targets in Syria.

Iran responded with a barrage of drones and missiles.

Since then, Ottawa has advised Canadians to avoid all travel to Israel and reiterated longstanding warnings about travel to Iran.

Mavridis says he reached out to the Canadian embassy as soon as the conflict erupted, but says the response was disappointing.

“They basically told us not to rely on them and stuff like that. You know, basically that they had no plans,” he said.

Mavridis says he loves Canada, but can’t help but feel frustrated.

“Every other country is doing stuff for their people that are stuck here,” he added.

“And we were just kind of left in the dark for a bit.”

With the hockey season now suspended, Mavridis says the focus for him and other Canadian players has shifted to getting out.

Canadian officials eventually told him that trying to reach a neighbouring country could be one option — he says that brings its own challenges.

“Our question was, how are they going to go there?” said Mavridis’s mother, Vassi Talampassi, speaking from Windsor.

“It’s very dangerous. It’s a war zone. They cannot cross the country to go to Jordan or Egypt.”

Global Affairs Canada confirms it has stationed consular officials in neighbouring countries, including Jordan, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan, for Canadians who manage to make it out.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says the federal government is working on commercial travel options but didn’t announce a formal evacuation.

“We are planning commercial options for Canadians in Israel and Iran to leave the region through certain neighbouring jurisdictions,” Anand told The Canadian Press Thursday.

Mavridis says his group of Canadians have registered with Global Affairs Canada, filling out the required forms and submitting their travel documents.

But so far, they haven’t been told when or how they’ll be leaving.

“We can’t really leave the area,” Mavridis said.

“We’ve just kind of been sitting here talking, doing research on how to get out of here. There’s nothing really safe for us to do right now.”

His mom says that limbo has taken a toll.

“We are — me and his father and his brother also — it’s very stressful,” she said.

“We went through serious health issues as a family, and now this is just another thing we have to face.”

On Thursday night, Mavridis said he finally got an email update.

“They said that they are going to start making plans for commercial flights,” he said.

“We haven’t heard anything since then… but we did get news.”

He’s hopeful it means the end of his stay in Tel Aviv is near.

“My birthday’s on June 30th, so hopefully I’m there for that.”