Thousands of Americans stranded in Israel evacuated by cruise ship

Thousands of Americans fleeing the war in Israel raced to board a cruise ship Monday that would take them to neighboring Cyprus.

The US Embassy in Israel announced the evacuation plan Sunday, offering the 2,500 Americans and their immediate family members still in Israel a chance to leave by sea.

The move comes as the Israeli military is preparing for an all-out ground assault on Gaza in retaliation for last week’s deadly attacks by Hamas that killed at least 1,400 people, including at least 29 Americans.

The cruise ship line Royal Caribbean stepped in to help after commercial airlines mostly stopped flying into Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport, making it extremely difficult to get out of the country.

US citizens, among them babies and young children, desperate to flee the escalating hostilities in the region headed to the port city of Haifa in the early hours, hoping to score a space on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas that would whisk them to safety.

Read more at https://nypost.com/2023/10/16/americans-stranded-in-israel-evacuated-by-cruise-ship/

#israel #hamas #evacuation #cruiseship

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