US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Wednesday his embassy is “working on evacuation flights and cruise ship departures” for American citizens looking to leave Israel amid the ongoing conflict with Iran.
Huckabee tweeted a link for interested Americans to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) so that they can receive updates.
Shortly before Huckabee’s announcement, two US officials said a government plane evacuated a number of diplomats and family members who had asked to leave Israel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic movements.
There was no indication of how many American diplomats and family members had left on the flight.
Other countries have already begun operating flights evacuating their citizens from Israel since Iran began launching barrages of missiles at the Jewish state on Friday.
The first flights carrying evacuees from Israel arrived in Slovakia and the Czech Republic late on Monday, authorities said Tuesday.
Slovak authorities said the first evacuation flight with 73 people, including 25 Slovak tourists and five family members of Slovak diplomats working in Tel Aviv, arrived in the capital, Bratislava.
Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said Slovakia had also helped bring citizens of other countries to Europe, including 15 Poles, mainly children, 14 Czechs, nine Austrians, two Slovenians, and one citizen each of Estonia, Spain and Malaysia.
Both Prague and Bratislava are contemplating sending further planes to the Middle East in the coming days.
Poland said on Tuesday that the evacuation of Poles from Israel was planned for Wednesday and Thursday. The European state said Monday that it was also organizing the evacuation of around 200 of its citizens from Israel via Jordan.
Additionally, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said it helped 14 Taiwanese leave Israel by bus for Jordan on Sunday and will help them travel onward.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Tourism Ministry said it would assist tourists currently stuck in Israel to register for specially coordinated departure flights from Israel once they are available.
For this purpose, the Tourism Ministry has opened a digital registration form distributed through various online platforms to incoming tourism organizers, hotels, tour guides and other industry stakeholders.
There are about 38,000 tourists currently in Israel, the ministry said Tuesday.
Israel’s airspace was closed after launching a sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites, and ballistic missile program, which it says is necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon and realizing its avowed plan to destroy the Jewish state.
Iran has retaliated by launching over 400 missiles and around 1,000 drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 wounded.
Israeli strikes on Iran have killed at least 224 people, according to Iranian officials.