On 10 May, the thirteen men left the church, and were taken to Ben Gurion International Airport in an armored bus, where a Royal Air Force transport plane awaited to take them to Cyprus. They were greeted by Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador to Israel, thirty members of the Royal Military Police, and a Royal Air Force doctor. They laid down their arms to the IDF behind a curtain, to avoid the photographers. They were denied permission to meet with their families before their exile.