By Helen Coster&nbsp;and&nbsp;Alexander Cornwell
NEW YORK/DUBAI (Reuters) - Some were on their honeymoon, others were studying abroad, many were building new lives in foreign countries. But when Israel called up its&nbsp;reservists&nbsp;and&nbsp;declared war this week, the response was swift&nbsp;and&nbsp;overwhelming.
"Everyone is coming. No one is saying no," said Yonatan Steiner, 24, who flew back from New York, where he works for a tech company, to join his old army medical unit.
"This is different, this is unprecedented, the rules have changed," he said, speaking by phone from the border near Lebanon where his regiment is based.
Israel has called up 360,000&nbsp;reservists&nbsp;in the wake of Saturday's assault by hundreds of&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;gunmen who overran towns, kibbutzes&nbsp;and&nbsp;army bases near the Gaza enclave, killing more than 1,300 civilians&nbsp;and&nbsp;soldiers&nbsp;and&nbsp;wounding over 2,700.
Most&nbsp;reservists&nbsp;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,&nbsp;and&nbsp;dropped&nbsp;everything&nbsp;to&nbsp;rush&nbsp;back.
Nimrod Nedan, a 23-year-old studying medicine in Lithuania, said friends&nbsp;and&nbsp;relatives died or were missing as a result of the surprise&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;attack, spurring him to action.
"I cannot sit here&nbsp;and&nbsp;study medicine while I know that my friends are fighting&nbsp;and&nbsp;my family needs protection. This is my time," he said.
L.K. - a 37-year-old reservist who served as an air force pilot for 13 years,&nbsp;and&nbsp;asked to be identified just by his initials for security reasons - felt exactly the same.
He works for a tech company in New York,&nbsp;and&nbsp;left his&nbsp;home, wife&nbsp;and&nbsp;children to hurry back to his squadron. "There is no other place in the world I would rather be. If I had to sit in my lovely apartment on the Upper West Side watching this I would never forgive myself," he said.
FINDING TICKETS
Military service is compulsory for the majority of Israelis when they turn 18. Men have to serve 32 months&nbsp;and&nbsp;women 24. After this, most of them can be called up to reserve units until the age of 40, or even older, in case of national emergency.
In times of war, they fight alongside the regular troops.
Yonatan Bunzel only finished his military service this year, making him exempt from immediate reserve duties,&nbsp;and&nbsp;like many Israelis just out of the army, he went travelling to celebrate his demobilisation.
He was in India when&nbsp;Hamas&nbsp;struck&nbsp;and&nbsp;despite not being obliged to return, Bunzel nonetheless packed his bags&nbsp;and&nbsp;headed&nbsp;home, five months ahead of schedule.
"My immediate reaction, of course, was shock&nbsp;and&nbsp;I didn't know exactly what to do. But after a few hours, my mind had cleared&nbsp;and&nbsp;I just knew I had to go back&nbsp;home, save my country, help my people, give my part," he said.
Reaching Tel Aviv was easier said than done. After flying to Dubai, Bunzel found there were no tickets available for Israel. However, a Jewish non-profit organisation, La'aretz, stepped in&nbsp;and&nbsp;secured seats for him&nbsp;and&nbsp;two of his friends.
Other Israelis recounted how their local consulates had provided free trips&nbsp;home, while U.S. media reported that people were going to the counters of Israeli airline El Al in New York&nbsp;and&nbsp;offering to buy tickets for anyone with call-up papers.
While many foreign carriers have cancelled flights to Tel Aviv, Israeli airlines have added flights on foreign routes to bring people back, while the military dispatched transport planes to some European cities to collect soldiers.
LIVES UP-ENDED
Israelis abroad are using WhatsApp chats to organise their return, sharing information on where to find available flights, said Yedidya Shalman, 26, who was in Thailand&nbsp;on his honeymoon when the violence exploded out of Gaza.
"(We) set up WhatsApp groups almost everywhere in the world, we called people to join them&nbsp;and&nbsp;we slowly worked to bring as many&nbsp;reservists&nbsp;as possible back to Israel," he said, explaining that he&nbsp;and&nbsp;his wife did not hesitate to curtail their holiday.
"Of course we didn't think twice&nbsp;and&nbsp;are currently on our way&nbsp;home&nbsp;on an El Al plane," he said via WhatsApp.
The mass mobilisation has not only wrecked holidays but also up-ended lives.
Oren Saar, 37, runs a food delivery startup, WoodSpoon, in New York City, where he lives with his wife&nbsp;and&nbsp;three young boys. A former captain in the Israeli army, he immediately acknowledged the call-up, but didn't tell his children what he was doing.
"The kids are very young&nbsp;and&nbsp;it's not really something that you want to explain. We told them I'm going on a business trip to Israel," he said, adding that it was going to be "tricky" to keep his new business going in his absence.
"But you know, there's just no question about what to do when my friends, my family&nbsp;and&nbsp;my country are at risk," he said.
Daily podcast: Listen to the global&nbsp;reservists&nbsp;answering the call&nbsp;and&nbsp;other top stories
https://link.reuters.com/78K0yPNMPDb
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell in Dubai, Helen Coster, Krystal Hu&nbsp;and&nbsp;Gabriella Borter in New York, Crispian Balmer in Rome&nbsp;and&nbsp;Andrius Sytas in Lithuania; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Nick Macfie)

you might like

Israel's reservists drop everything and rush home following Hamas bloodshed