The Abu Alroub family is a Palestinian family from Jenin who have lived in the city of Irpin, Ukraine, for the past few years. With the outbreak of fighting and the massive shelling of the city, the family members were forced to abandon their home.
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They found shelter in a nearby village - Entebbe, a village populated by Chabad Hasidim, led by the community's rabbi, Rabbi Moshe Esman.
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Rabbi Essman opened the local guesthouse to many Jews who were forced to flee their homes, from where he is trying to rescue them outside the borders of Ukraine, while providing them with shelter, food, drink, and other necessary equipment.
The Abu Alrov family arrived in the area and found shelter with members of the Jewish community.
Dr. Yakov Abu Alrov, the father of the family, told i24NEWS Arabic correspondent Adham Habibullah: "Irpin is a city in the suburbs of Kiev, about 15 kilometers away. Now, the Russian tanks tried to enter Kiev through Irpin, but they did not succeed, because they faced very violent resistance. There were several battles in Irpin and during all this time that we were at home and were afraid to go out, we kept going back and forth to shelters, sometimes we had to stay at home. We did not have the opportunity to escape before.
'"We were told that we had to evacuate the place we were staying because it was no longer safe. So we left as soon as there was a lull in the fighting and it was an adventure because we really didn't know what to expect. My wife and two children were with me in the car and we drove all the way here. There were gunshots, I didn't dare drive fast. We encountered five checkpoints of the Ukrainian army.".
Yaakov says that normally this trip doesn't take more than half an hour: "But it took us two hours with all the checkpoints. It was a difficult situation.".
Yakub added that Irpin is a strategic city: "If they invade Irpin and take control of the city, they will be right at the entrance to Kiev.".
Dr. Yakub says that there is an amazing solidarity among the Ukrainian people: "This wave of solidarity was clearly visible during the war. There is no difference, all residents are treated the same. Whether they are Arabs or not, Ukrainians, people of all other religions, everyone sticks together, people are united in this situation, because they need each other to survive. We are talking about children and women who were suddenly thrown out of their homes, civilians became homeless overnight. This is a situation that cries out for automatic humanitarian unity.".
In the village where the i24NEWS team stayed, along with Dr. Abu Alrov, his family, the village's residents, and dozens of other refugees, members of the Chabad community are working to rescue them in a secure bus convoy outside the country's borders.
Dr. Abu Alrov says that they received great support from members of the Chabad community and were warmly welcomed: "They helped us a lot, gave us shelter and received us generously. They offered us food, drink and other essential things.".
Dr. Yakov added that they do not know where they will go after being rescued from the borders of Ukraine: "We leave it in God's hands. Maybe to Poland or Romania, anywhere we can get to in one of the neighboring European countries, if we get that opportunity. But to be honest, the situation seems to be only getting worse. We see on TV Russian reinforcements that are increasing every day, we do not know whether we will be able to pass or not.".
