Palestinians give Israeli couple money to flee Thailand after tsunami disaster
By The Associated Press
Haaretz, December 29, 2004
The tsunami that devastated parts of Southeast Asia brought an Israeli and a Palestinian couple together in the most trying of circumstances, the Israelis said yesterday - on the roof of a truck, with flood waters swirling around them.
Yossi and Inbar Gross said they were spending their honeymoon in the Thai resort of Phuket when the area was overwhelmed by a wall of water.
"We and this Palestinian couple jumped on the roof of this Ford van," Yossi Gross told Army Radio. "Below us was a raging river, a sea that washed up into the city and dragged everything along with it. Everything was wrecked, everything was ruined."
Gross said they stayed with the Palestinian couple, from East Jerusalem, on the van's roof for more than four hours before they were able to climb down. He did not give their names.
After they made their way to a makeshift shelter, the Palestinians gave them money and assistance that enabled them to get to Bangkok and board a flight for Israel, Gross said.
"I have to tell you if there's someone I have to thank, quite simply they're the people who got us out of there," he said. "All of our money, our passports, they were left in the hotel ... without them we couldn't have got out."
Inbar Gross said their debt to the Palestinians was incalculable. "Maybe we owe them our lives," she said.
Her husband said he and the Palestinians exchanged phone numbers and intend to keep in close touch. "Friends?" he said. "Of course we are. Absolutely."
