A charter flight of Americans who were evacuated from Israel landed in Tampa early Friday as the country's conflict with Iran continued to escalate.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who charted four flights to bring home about 1,500 people, greeted 160 passengers early Friday morning at Tampa International Airport. All were assisted out of Ashdod, Israel, to Cyprus via cruise ship, then flown to Tampa.
"The reality is that there will be more folks that are going to be rescued," DeSantis said. "This is an ongoing effort. I know that potentially there are some other states that want to get in the game at this point. The reality is that there is definitely a need for more."
With Israeli airspace closed because of the conflict, the Florida Division of Emergency management partnered with Grey Bull Rescue, a veteran-led nonprofit, to execute the evacuations.
"Evacuation flights are still ongoing as a part of Florida's unprecedented mission to bring our residents home. This operation will continue 24/7 with the safety and well being of Americans and Floridians as our top priority," said Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie.
Most of the passengers were from a program called Birthright Israel, which provides educational trips to the the country for young Jewish Americans. Birthright Israel said it will pay for all its participants’ transportation.
In 2023, DeSantis also chartered flights to Israel to evacuate about 300 Americans to Tampa after the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.
DeSantis said Tampa's airport was again used because it "worked very, very well with the state of Florida to be able to make this a seamless process."
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