Harambe Starlets' player Janet Moraa who is holed up in her hotel in Jerusalem following US-led invasion of Iran on March 1, 2026.
Harambee Starlets striker, Janet Moraa Bundi, has narrated her harrowing experience while caught up in the conflict between Iran, Israel and the United States at her team's hotel in the heart of Jerusalem.
Since Saturday, when the conflict erupted, Moraa, who plays professional football at FC Beitar Jerusalem in the Israeli Division Two League, has been holed up at her room in JRose Hotel located in the heart of Jerusalem.
She has been scrambling for safety alongside other hotel occupants whenever sounds of warning sirens and alarms rent the air to warn them of a possible missile attack, forcing her to repeatedly descend from her fourth-floor room down to the bunker of the 15-story building, sometimes on a minute’s notice.
“It started on Saturday at 8am. I was still asleep when a warning alert, louder than my usual alarm bell, came to my phone, and then the alarm in the building went off. I was really scared,” Moraa, who plays for FC Beitar Jerusalem in the Israeli Division Two League, told Nation Sport on phone from Jerusalem yesterday. FC Beitar Jerusalem houses foreign members of its squad at JRose Hotel, located in the heart of Jerusalem.
Janet Moraa prepares to strike the ball during a past match.
Saturday’s strikes on Iran targeted 24 provinces, killing at least 201 people in Iran, among them Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The US-Israeli air war against Iran expanded yesterday with no end in sight, engulfing Lebanon with Israel responding to strikes by Hezbollah, while Tehran fired missiles and drones at Israel, Gulf states and a British air base in faraway Cyprus. The “big wave” is yet to come in the war with Iran, US President Donald Trump said yesterday, adding that the US does not know who the country’s new leader will be following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Run for safety
Moraa, 26, recounted waking up on Saturday morning and opening her hotel door, then seeing everyone running. Unsure of where they were going, she followed.
“The hotel doors were being closed, and the lift wasn’t working, forcing people to use the stairs. Even elderly people struggled to run for safety,” she said.
The hotel’s residents were instructed to evacuate from their rooms to the first floor, and to head to a safe underground area for one to two minutes before returning to their rooms. They were instructed to stay near their phones and to be ready to move within one minute of an alarm.
Moraa said each alert would be immediately followed by a jet flying over the building, and a loud bang, accompanied by a large dark cloud of smoke in the sky.
When Nation Sport contacted her on Monday at 11am (Kenyan time, she said she had sought shelter in the hotel’s bunker three to four times in the morning alone, with alerts sounding every 30-40 minutes. Some residents, unable to cope with the repeated warnings and alerts, had already moved to nearby hotels located in shorter buildings.
Real war
“It makes me scared because this is a real war.” She added, “The first day was really scary. I didn’t know why there was a loud alert on my phone. In the hotel, everyone was running downstairs for safety,” Bundi said. Football leagues in Israel stopped on Saturday, and the club informed players that sports would be suspended until further notice.
“The language barrier is a problem. Some of the hotel staff speak a little English, and that’s how I’ve been surviving,” Bundi, who won four Football Kenya Federation Women Premier League titles with Vihiga Queens, said.
Language barrier presents an additional challenge to Bundi, as few hotel staff speak English fluently. She is the only foreign player in the team, and she has stayed in the hotel since joining the club last September.
The 26-year-old previously played for National Bank of Egypt (NBE) Women's Football Club in the 2024/25 season. She joined NBE in September for a one-year contract, making her the first Kenyan female footballer to turn professional in Egypt. Moraa also featured for Yanga Princess of Tanzania and has been part of the Starlets. She was in Kenya’s squad that competed in the 2016 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon.
She was last called up to the national team in February last year for the 2026 Wafcon qualifiers first round qualifier match against Tunisia, but remained on the bench in both matches. Born and raised in Nyamira County, she is the last born in a family of eight children, five girls and three boys.
Michael Olunga, Anthony Akumu, Austine Odhaimbo and Masoud Juma are some of the other Kenyan players based in the Middle East.
Olunga, who is the Harambee Stars captain, plays for Al-Arabi Sports Club in the Qatar Stars League. On Sunday, the Qatar football federation announced the suspension of all football tournaments and matches until further notice.
Akumu, Odhiambo and Juma play for Nejmeh Sporting Club in the Lebanese Premier League.
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