(Yicai) Oct. 12 -- A Chinese tour group that was unaware of the outbreak of conflict between Palestine and Israel was held up at a border checkpoint for five hours when trying to re-enter Israel but was eventually allowed to pass and is now safely back in China.

The tour group set off from Bethlehem at 8 a.m. local time on Oct. 7 en route to the Old City of Jerusalem in Israel. Unbeknownst to them, that day Hamas, a Palestinian armed group, launched a multipronged attack on Israel.

“We didn’t realize that a war had broken out between the two nations until someone in the bus looked at the Internet," a member of the tour group surnamed Li told Yicai. "There were armed soldiers at the checkpoint, saying that there was a state of war, and they were not allowed to let us pass without orders from their superiors. They got on the bus and checked our passports.”

“We heard bombs going off and saw clouds of smoke rising. The bus waited for five hours before it was allowed to pass,” he added.

Li’s flight back to Shanghai on Hainan Airlines on Oct. 9 was canceled. But the Chinese airline still kept some flights operating to bring travelers back. Li transferred to the HU744 flight to Shenzhen on Oct. 10, and was very relieved when the plane touched down the next day.

"The drive to the airport was without incident. I didn't see the carnage unfolding on the Internet. But there were a lot of people at the airport. Many passengers whose flights were cancelled could only stay at the airport and wait," Li said.

Since then, the Chinese travel agency has canceled any further tours into the country. The Israel tourism authorities are asking all tourists to stay in hotels due to the uncertain situation and to head for designated shelters when the alarms go off.

Chinese people travel to Israel more for business than tourism, an executive at Hainan Airlines told Yicai earlier. Many travelers wanted to return home after the conflict began, but there are some who still want to travel to the Western Asian country so the Haikou-based carrier is keeping some flights running.

There will be two direct flights between Shenzhen and Tel Aviv every Tuesday and Friday from Oct. 12 to Oct. 31 but flights out of Beijing and Shanghai to Tel Aviv have been suspended, it said.

There are also a lot of connecting flights through the UAE, Amman, Jordan, Bangkok and Thailand back to China. However, many European and American airlines have stopped flying to Tel Aviv for the moment.

Editor: Kim Taylor