A JERSEYWOMAN and her family endured a harrowing nine-hour drive from south Lebanon to Beirut to escape the Israeli bombardment of the country.

Rosena Rakin (50), her husband Ali and three Island-born children drove through orange groves and banana fields to stay undercover to reach the relative safety of the Lebanese capital.

Rosena’s mother, Dulcie Osmand, said that the family drove past the mangled wreckage of other vehicles which had been destroyed by munitions and witnessed at first hand the carnage of war.

‘It was harrowing.

They saw bodies of little ones, fathers and mothers.

A journey that should have taken three hours took nine as they had to stay undercover as much as possible,’ said Mrs Osmand from her St Mary home.

The family had been sheltering in a bunker for the previous seven days along with six other families before deciding to make a dash for safety.

But the good news was that they made the journey unscathed in an old Volvo ‘that looked like a tank but got through everything’.

And yesterday morning they boarded a Royal Navy ship to take them to safety in Cyprus.

Mrs Osmand said: ‘They are traumatised by what has happened.

However, when they called us they said that they were on board and not to worry.

I don’t know what ship they were on.’ The family are expected to come to Jersey as soon as they can arrange transport home.