TRAGEDY DELUGE: Members of the Greater Jakarta Students Executive Board unfurl a banner at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta, protesting a plan to increase fuel prices. They said on Wednesday the hike would add greater burden to people following a string of disasters that have hit the country in the past two months. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
A PRAYER FOR THE VICTIMS: A group of citizens hold candles and pray for the victims of the quake and tsunami in Aceh. Hundreds of religious leaders, celebrities, experts and non-governmental activists joined the prayer held at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Jakarta on Wednesday evening. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
Palestinian couple comes to rescue of Israeli honeymooners hit by quake 29 December 2004
JERUSALEM - A pair of Israeli newlyweds described Wednesday how a Palestinian couple came to their rescue during Thailand’s tidal wave disaster, paying for them to fly back home after they had lost all their cash.
Yossi and Inbar Gross from Kiryat Gat, an Israeli town close to Tel Aviv, and Samy and Sally Khuri, from east Jerusalem, were staying in the same hotel in the island resort of Phuket.
After a romantic stroll on the beach Sunday, the Israeli couple went up their room only to find “a huge wave arriving,” Yossi Gross told the Maariv newspaper after arriving back in Israel.
He and his wife managed to flee but their belongings, including money and passports, were washed away by the killer wave.
The Khuris lent them the necessary cash to fly back to Israel.
“It’s simply an amazing couple. They paid for one hotel night and our plane tickets. It’s wonderful,” said Yossi Inbar.
Israel’s foreign ministry said Wednesday it was still awaiting news from 150 citizens in various Asian countries hit by the quake, which has killed more than 60,000 people so far.