'Woke up to sounds of bombs going off': Actor Nushrratt Bharuccha recounts Israel horror

Nushrratt, who was briefly stuck in Israel, said: "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 Tuesday.

"It was only when we emerged from 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 announced that 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 said, 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.

"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 the Government of India, the Indian Embassy and the Israeli Embassy, for their help and guidance in bringing my team and me back safely," the actor said.

According to a CNN report, at least 900 people in Israel and more than 680 people in Palestine have been killed so far as Israel pounds Gaza with unrelenting airstrikes.

More than 100,000 people have been displaced so far, according to reports.

Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu earlier gave a strong message to the world when he equated Hamas with ISIS and vowed that his country would defeat the 'terrorists'.

“We are in an operation for our home, a war to ensure our existence, a war that we will win," the PM said in a televised address to the nation on Monday.

“This war was imposed upon us by a despicable enemy — by savages who celebrate the murder of women, children, and the elderly,” he said. “The atrocities carried out by Hamas have not been seen since the atrocities of ISIS. Children bound and executed with the rest of their families, young girls and boys shot in the back, executed, and other atrocities that I will not describe here.”