(Tribune News Service) — Florida and a group of nonprofits are rushing to bring back Americans stranded in Israel while commercial flights to and from the country are halted amid the conflict between Israel and Iran.
The confrontation began last week after Israel launched a surprise wave of airstrikes targeting Iran nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. federal government is warning U.S. citizens to not travel to Israel “due to armed conflict, terrorism, and civil unrest.”
Bryan Stern, founder of Grey Bull Rescue, one of the groups coordinating rescue efforts with the state of Florida, said during an online news conference Thursday that there are several college students from Florida and other states who are waiting to be evacuated, including from Florida State University in Tallahassee.
A group of 22 University of Miami students who were participating in an internship program in Tel Aviv are some of the people awaiting to be evacuated, according to The Miami Hurricane, the university’s student newspaper.
Arielle Green, 22, a UM student who was in the final week of her internship in Israel, told CBS Miami that she recently woke up in the middle of the night to a missile alert blaring on her phone. She rushed to a nearby bomb shelter, where she and other students remained for nearly an hour.
“We’re like waiting there and a bunch of Israelis on the street, near a bar, joined us,” she told the news station. “We were sitting on the floor on mattresses and waiting until we got some sort of signal to leave.”
The Miami Herald has contacted the University of Miami for more information. The students are in a safe location and are expected to be flown home by early next week, according to CBS Miami.
Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, which is in charge of overseeing the state’s response to hurricanes and other disasters, posted Sunday on Facebook that it’s “coordinating efforts to assist Americans seeking evacuation from the hostile situation in Israel.”
“If you or someone you know needs help returning home, visit: FloridaDisaster.org/IsraelRescue,” reads the post.
The link directs people to fill out an evacuation assistance form from Tampa-based Grey Bull Rescue, a veteran-led team that helps rescue people from dangerous situations.
Grey Bull Rescue has received over 4,000 evacuation requests and expects to hit 6,000 requests by Saturday, according to Stern, who founded the group several years ago.
Stern said all of the rescue flights Grey Bull has coordinated so far with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have been “successful” and that it has several other flights in the works.
DeSantis has so far chartered at least four jets to fly nearly 1,500 Jewish Americans, who fled Israel to Cyprus via cruise ship, into Tampa, with Birthright Israel paying for all its participants’ transportation costs, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
South Florida resident Danielle Gozlan and her family had to travel across the Jordanian border to catch a flight that landed at Miami International Airport Thursday morning, according to WSVN.
“We couldn’t find another way back we signed up for different ways—evacuation, rescue ways—and it just didn’t work out for us so we had to go through Jordan. We had to get back home,” Gozlan told WSVN. “It was really hard, especially for the kids, hearing the sirens go off every so often. It was really hard.”
This isn’t the first time Florida has helped coordinate rescue efforts when there’s been escalating conflict in the Middle East. In October 2023, at the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, DeSantis reported that nearly 700 Americans were flown to Florida on four flights from Israel that were coordinated with Project DYNAMO, a veteran-led Tampa-based nonprofit that conducts rescue missions in conflict zones.
On Tuesday, Project DYNAMO announced that it had “completed its first successful evacuations of Americans out of Israel” during this latest conflict in the Middle East, including 30 veterans who were on a retreat in Jerusalem with South Florida non-profit Heroes to Heroes.
Earlier this week, the U.S. State Department raised its travel advisory for Israel to Level 4, its highest level, and is warning U.S. citizens to not travel to the country. The West Bank and Gaza are also under the “Do Not Travel” Level 4 advisory.
“The security situation in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is unpredictable, and U.S. citizens are reminded to remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness as security incidents, including mortar and rocket fire and armed UAV intrusions and missiles, can take place without warning,” reads the travel advisory.
The U.S. government is also “unable to provide routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens in Gaza as U.S. government employees are prohibited from traveling there,” according to the state department.”The security environment within Gaza and on its borders is extremely dangerous and volatile.”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on the social media platform X on Wednesday said that the U.S. embassy in Israel is “working on evacuation flights and cruise ship departures.”
He also directed U.S. citizens who want to leave Israel to enroll in the Start Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive updates.
©2025 Miami Herald
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC
Smoke rises over buildings in Tehran, Iran, following strikes by Israel on June 16, 2025. (Nikan/Middle East Images via AFP/Getty Images/TNS)
