But when Israel called up its reservists and declared war this week, the response was swift and overwhelming. Most reservists were already in Israel at the time of the call-up - the largest such compulsory mobilisation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. But many were out of the country, for a variety of reasons, and dropped everything to rush back. "I cannot sit here and study medicine while I know that my friends are fighting and my family needs protection. A former captain in the Israeli army, he immediately acknowledged the call-up, but didn't tell his children what he was doing.

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Persons: Ammar Awad, Rush, Israel, Yonatan Steiner, Nimrod Nedan, L.K, Yonatan Bunzel, Bunzel, Yedidya Shalman, Oren Saar, it's, there's, Alexander Cornwell, Helen Coster, Krystal Hu, Gabriella Borter, Crispian Balmer, Andrius, Nick Macfie Organizations: REUTERS, El Al, Thomson Locations: Israel, Gaza, Sderot, DUBAI, New York, Lebanon, kibbutzes, Lithuania, India, Tel Aviv, Dubai, Thailand, El, WhatsApp, New York City, Rome