Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) chartered four flights to bring roughly 1,500 Jewish-Americans from Israel back home to America.
The Americans on a 10-day Birthright Israel trip took an Israeli cruise vessel to Larnaca, Cyprus, while protected by the Israeli Navy. DeSantis chartered four wide-bodied jetliners to bring them from Cyprus back to Tampa, Florida, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
“The remainder of the 2,800 international participants who were in Israel when war broke out on Friday have chosen to depart via other means or have chosen to stay in Israel with family,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
“We have been working with the Israeli consulate, which has been in touch with the governor’s office,” Joy Prevor, vice president of projects for the Broward Jewish Federation, stated. “We are hopeful anyone who needs to get out will get out, but it is being done in a staged fashion. I just saw a video of the boat to Cyprus. It’s difficult because they were in such a stressful situation.”
“Thank God for the Iron Dome and thank God for Israel having a very developed text alert system,” she continued.
The Daily Wire noted that in October 2023, DeSantis ordered an emergency airlift that brought home another 200 Americans. He also sent two large planes containing 85 pallets of donated supplies.
An American YouTuber attempting to cycle across all seven continents documented his dramatic escape from Iran after war erupted between Israel and Tehran while he was traveling across the country.
Ian Andersen, a Minnesota native whose YouTube channel RideWithIan has been chronicling his solo cycling odyssey to raise money for spinal cord research, found himself trapped north of Tehran this week as the conflict escalated and borders were shut.
“The situation is quite dire at this point,” Andersen said in a video posted from an undisclosed rural location. “All the land borders are closed. Flights have all been canceled. There’s a rumor that the border with Iraq is open. So that’s my best hope right now.”
Andersen, who began his epic journey in 2016 riding the length of the Americas, had entered Iran before hostilities flared. As Iranian officials increasingly linked the U.S. with Israeli military action, Andersen said he feared being treated as an enemy agent.
“The Iranians now see the U.S. as being like tied directly to Israel. Now people see the U.S. as the enemy. So I’m in quite a bit of danger here. It’s no longer safe to bike, in my opinion,” he said. “It’s a matter of just escape and survival. Evading police, capture.”
Social media access was cut off during his attempted exit, and Andersen described hearing explosions while hiding with a local guide north of the capital.
“We heard the bomb… just a few miles from us,” he said.
In a dramatic final update to his video on Thursday, Andersen confirmed he had received last-minute permission to cross into Azerbaijan, given an “emergency green light to enter the country” with the help of a staffer at the U.S. Embassy in the nation’s capital, Baku.
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“That border is never open. It hasn’t been open in five years,” he said. “Very grateful to Azerbaijan.”
