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Agence France-Presse

Tetiana Kocheva fled her home in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv after Russia invaded last year, taking refuge in Israel’s coastal town of Ashqelon, near Gaza.
Her husband had worked in Israel in the past, and she thought taking their three children there – away from Russian attacks – would guarantee living in peace.
But then came October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, leading to a war that has since killed thousands.
Like several thousand other Ukrainian refugees, Kocheva fled war for a second time.




“If I am killed then at least it’s on my native land,” the 39-year-old said.
When Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022, Kocheva spent 10 days hiding in a basement in Kharkiv, which almost fell to the Russian army.
Five months into the invasion, the family left for Israel.
They began a new life in Ashqelon, some 10 kilometres (6 miles) from Gaza.
My hands started to shake and I had the same feeling that I did when it all started in our country
Tetiana Kocheva, Ukranian refugee who led Israel-Gaza war
During the surprise attack by Hamas – which killed some 1,200 people – she felt she needed to leave.
“My hands started to shake and I had the same feeling that I did when it all started in our country,” she said.
Israel then launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian militant group Hamas has said over 11,000 have since died.
Kocheva slept in a shelter again, recalling endless sirens and explosions.
Then she decided she had to flee.
Hospitals have special protection in war. Why have they been attacked in Gaza?
“When it intensified … I started to panic,” she said.
“I got scared, I realised that I needed to come home.”
The family was evacuated to central Israel, where they stayed several days, before going back to Kharkiv.
War is still a feature of life in Kharkiv – while being firmly under Ukrainian control, the city is regularly hit by Russian attacks. Sirens are still a regular part of life.
But for Kocheva, it was a relief to be back.
“I walk here, it’s my native land, my flag, I don’t know how to express it, I am happy,” she said.
Kyiv has said that some 4,000 Ukrainians have left Israel since the Hamas attack.

In the capital Kyiv, Anna Lyashko and her eight-year-old daughter Diana were also back from Israel.
They had fled to Israel in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion in March last year.
They had been living close to areas of the Kyiv region that fell to Russian forces early in their attack, living without “electricity, water or communication”, the 28-year-old mother said.
“My daughter was very scared and I decided to leave,” the 28-year-old said.
She decided to take her daughter to Israel, where she had a relative.
But when hostilities started in Israel last month, it brought her back to the day Russia invaded Ukraine.
Israel offers to evacuate babies from ‘total war zone’ near main Gaza hospital
“My first feelings were the same as 24th of February (2022) in Ukraine,” she said.
“Someone called me in the morning and said ‘Anna, war has started’, it was exactly the same feeling I had in Ukraine.”
She said her daughter had “fear in her eyes” and that she “understood that I could not stay”.
They flew out of Tel Aviv a week later, with the help of the Ukrainian embassy.
As her daughter played in fallen leaves in a Kyiv park, Lyashko said the pair were also happily home, reunited with family.
Sitting in her office on the opposite side of the Dnipro River in Kyiv, Oksana Sokolovska said she thought Israel would be “the safest country in the world” when she fled Russia’s invasion there.




Like many women with children, the 39-year-old lawyer left Ukraine with her three children at the start of the war last year.
“I had no right to risk their lives,” she said.
As she spoke Hebrew, she chose Israel as their destination and they settled in Rishon LeTsiyon, near Tel Aviv.
But she, too, spent October 7 in a shelter with her children.
“Massive bombing started,” she said.

Once again, she took a quick decision to leave Israel.
“It is difficult to leave one war for another,” she told said.
But Sokolovska was nonetheless “happy to be home.”
“Right now in Kyiv, the situation is calmer than in Israel,” she said, almost two years into the Russian invasion.
“It is the only reason why I came back.”


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Israel-Gaza war

Israel-Gaza war: Ukrainians who fled Russian invasion for Israel return home as they leave ‘one war for another’

Ukrainian Anna Lyashko, 28, and her daughter Diana, 8, refugeed in Israel since the beginning of the conflict with Hamas returned to Ukraine, still at war with Russia. Photo: AFP

Anna Lyashko, 28, and her daughter Diana, 8 play in a park near Dnipro river. The Ukrainian, refugeed in Israel since the beginning of the Russian invasion fled the conflict with Hamas to return to Ukraine, still at war. Photo: AFP

Oksana Sokolovska left Ukraine for Israel to escape the Russian invasion, only to return following the conflict in Gaza. Photo: AFP

Israel offers to evacuate babies from ‘total war zone’ near main Gaza hospital

A wounded Palestinian baby receives treatment at the Al Shifa hospital in Gaza on October 23. Photo:  AP

Internally displaced Palestinians pictured at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Saturday. Photo: AFP

A Palestinian woman, who was injured in an Israeli strike and was staying at Al Shifa hospital, moves southward after fleeing north Gaza as Israeli tanks roll deeper into the enclave. Photo: Reuters

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Smoke plumes billow during Israeli bombardment near a position along the border with the Gaza Strip. Airlines have been forced to take longer flights to avoid war zones like the one in Gaza. Photo: AFP

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. Photo: Haim Zach / GPO / dpa

Patients and internally displaced people at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Friday. Photo: AFP

Protesters calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas rally at the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, Israel on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Gaza war sharpens Arab world’s grievances against Israel: ‘peace is only on paper’

Protesters on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza hold placards denouncing the killing of civilians during a rally at the site last month. Photo: AFP

Protesters shout anti-Israel slogans during a rally to show solidarity with the people of Gaza after Friday in Cairo on October 20. Photo: AP

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Ukraine war: Kyiv criticises calls for Russia talks as ‘uninformed or misled’

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says his country has tried to hold hundreds of meetings with Russia since Moscow annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Photo: dpa

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Anna Lyashko and her 8-year-old daughter Diana fled to Israel in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion in March 2022, but have now returned to Kyiv
Kyiv has said that some 4,000 Ukrainians have left Israel since the Hamas attack


Kyiv has said that some 4,000 Ukrainians have left Israel since the Hamas attack.
