German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was rushed to a bomb shelter as he concluded a visit to Israel on Tuesday night, after his delegation was forced to evacuate their plane due to incoming rocket fire from Gaza, journalists traveling with him have said.
Air raid alarms sounded as Scholz and his team prepared to take off from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, with the chancellor briefly ushered away to a safe area as a precaution.
Part of the incident was captured in footage shared by German reporter Sara Sievert, in which aides and journalists were seen exiting the plane and taking cover on the tarmac.
Though early reports said Scholz was also forced to lie on the ground during the scare, journalist Robin Alexander, who was also with the delegation, later clarified that the leader was brought to a nearby shelter. Alexander noted that he “personally saw explosions in the sky” over the airport as Israel’s air defense leapt into action.
Scholz and the other passengers were able to reboard the plane a few minutes after the evacuation, following an additional security check, according to German newspaper Bild. The outlet added that the chancellor “was able to see two explosions with his own eyes,” and said his team had safely landed in Cairo after the “dramatic takeoff.”
The leader was forced to take shelter several times at the German embassy during his visit to Tel Aviv, due to fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant groups.
All-out conflict erupted earlier this month after a Hamas cross-border incursion and series of terrorist attacks, which prompted waves of Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. At least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed in the hostilities, and some 1,400 in Israel, according to officials on both sides.
Scholz was the first Western leader to travel to Israel following the October 7 Hamas attack, saying the trip would show Germany’s “solidarity” with the Jewish state. The chancellor stressed that Berlin had a special obligation to defend the country, even stating that “Germany’s history and the responsibility it had for the Holocaust requires us to maintain the security and existence of Israel.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took up a similar theme in his own address, declaring that “Hamas are the new Nazis.” He added: “And just as the world united to defeat the Nazis, just as the world united to defeat ISIS, the world has to stand united behind Israel to defeat Hamas.”