Getting trapped in a foreign country when a war breaks out is not that rare an event. Anybody ever read the British author Olivia Manning's wonderful books, The Balkan Trilogy? She and her husband were busy teaching English in Bucharest just before WWII, when suddenly tanks rolled down the streets and they were trapped. The first book concerns their attempts to get out - and they finally manage to do so, and end up in Egypt...and then Jerusalem.
Great stories (made into a BBC mini-series). But basically, if you go into an unstable or threatened region, it's your choice. The entire ME is unstable, and people shouldn't be surprised if sometimes its boiling-over moment coincides with their vacation.
Exactly. Anytime you travel in the Middle East you have to assume you're travelling in a war zone, no matter how far removed you may think you are from hostilities. As we've seen over and over again, war and terrorism can strike anywhere in the region.