For Eric Weinbaum, the last straw for his family was the Iranian ballistic missile that destroyed a building near his family’s Airbnb in Tel Aviv.
“We left early Tuesday morning at 6 a.m., taking a van to the Sheikh Hussein crossing in northern Israel,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Once we crossed into Jordan, we took another van to Amman. From there, we flew to Istanbul, then to JFK [International Airport], and finally into Palm Beach [International] Airport — about 40 hours of travel, door to door.”
“What made it truly surreal, though, was watching missiles fly overhead near the Jordanian border crossing, and again around 2 a.m.,” he said. “While we sat aboard a Royal Jordanian flight preparing to depart for Istanbul, we could see the missiles coming overhead towards Jerusalem, and the Iron Dome intercepting missiles off in the distance.”
Weinbaum and his wife, son and son’s fiancee arrived in Israel on June 12 from their Boca Raton home for his daughter’s wedding.
“We arrived in Tel Aviv … to calm skies and peaceful days, but things quickly spiraled into panic,” he said. “That’s what ultimately led us to make the decision to exit through Jordan.”
The family did so on their own, not with the help of any specialized evacuation organization, the state of Florida, Israel or the U.S. Government. From a logistical standpoint, they had an advantage over thousands of others trying to flee the burgeoning air war between Israel and Iran. His son is a Delta Air Lines pilot who served in the U.S. Marines and knows his way around the world of commercial aviation.
Tens of thousands seek exits
The Weinbaums were among an estimated 40,000 tourists in Israel when the war broke out. On Thursday, Israel’s Ministry of Tourism said in a statement from Director General Danny Shachar that it had compiled a list of 22,000 tourists and turned it over to authorities as part of an operation called “Safe Return,” which is now assisting foreigners trying to leave Israel. It was originally set up to help bring Israelis back home from overseas.
Shacher said he’s asked that return flights that brought Israelis home be used to take foreign tourists back to their countries.
“Tourists find themselves in a situation of uncertainty and even distress amid an intense war,” he wrote. “Some are staying here longer than planned, sometimes under difficult financial and personal circumstances. Such operational prioritization is not only a humanitarian and necessary act but also has great political and image value: These tourists will become ambassadors of goodwill for the State of Israel.”
Border crossings into Egypt and Jordan remain open, he said.
Shacher invited tourists who have not registered for evacuation flights to fill out a digital form at the following link: https://govforms.gov.il/mw/forms/TouristEvacuationFromIsrael@tourism.gov.il?displang=en
From the American side, there are a number of non-U.S. Government efforts under way to bring back Americans. Although the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, which was closed after the war started, reopened Friday, the State Department said on its website that it had nothing to say about aiding Americans who want to leave Israel. The department has elevated its travel advisory for Israel to its Level 4 “Do Not Travel” warning.
“We have no announcement about assisting private U.S. citizens to depart at this time,” the statement said. “The Department of State is always planning for contingencies to assist with private U.S. citizens’ departure from crisis areas. We will alert the U.S. citizen community if there is additional information to share regarding departure options. U.S. citizens should enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive the latest updates.”
The department noted that Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv remains closed, and there are no commercial or charter flights operating from there. Israeli seaports are also closed, the department said. But the Times of Israel reported that the first cruise ship “bringing stranded Israelis back from Cyprus, in coordination with the Transportation Ministry” arrived at the Ashdod port in southern Israel early Friday.
The non-U.S. Government organizations now involved in evacuations say they are employing military veterans as well as those with experience abroad while employed by the State Department and intelligence and foreign aid agencies. Their overseas contacts and expertise developed in the past are now proving beneficial during present-day crises, the organizations say.
That experience appeared to be in play as the state of Florida commenced its efforts to bring back Floridians and other Americans from Israel via Cyprus.
State of Florida / Grey Bull Rescue
At a Tampa news conference before sunrise Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said they chose the Grey Bull Rescue organization for its members’ deep expertise in war zones overseas. The agency has established a link to Grey Bull Rescue for families seeking help.
“This is probably the most challenging and logistically difficult mission that the Florida Department of Emergency Management has done,” DeSantis said after a plane from Cyprus offloaded 160 passengers at Tampa International Airport. “All of a sudden, to have this happen, you’re really in no man’s land. And so, we understood there was a need for help.”
Guthrie said the state would not discuss the tactics being used for security reasons.
It was the second flight in two days to land in Tampa from Cyprus orchestrated by the state. It is a rescue effort that has now brought 320 Floridians and other Americans back to the U.S. The first flight touched down Thursday morning. The governor called it a “24/7” operation with more flights to come.
He said the effort, which includes helping Birthright Israel tour participants, is not limited to Floridians. Out-of-state residents, the governor said, are also welcome to use the Florida connection.
One of Friday’s arriving passengers, Josh Hammer, a Newsweek commentator based in Hallandale, profusely thanked the governor, the state, and Grey Bull.
“You’re essentially living on pins and needles for the bombs to go off,” said Hammer, who was also in Israel for a wedding. “And then you have basically 90 seconds or two minutes to take — in our case, our 6-month-old baby — and just run to the bomb shelter.”
In a Zoom news conference on Thursday, Grey Bull Rescue founder Bryan Stern said his group expects to have received 6,000 requests for help by Saturday. As he spoke, 4,000 people had registered with his organization through the emergency management agency.
Sterling said Grey Bull Rescue and the DeSantis administration are working in lockstep with each other to bring Americans home. Another participant who is deeply involved: State Sen. Jay Collins, a U.S. Army veteran who served as a Green Beret.
“We continue to conduct operations throughout the region,” Stern told reporters.
“We have buses, we have airplanes, we have maritime options which remain solid,” he said. “Our relationships [in the Middle East] are extremely solid and allow us to do things that are very hard to do.”
“The situation on the ground is complex to say the least,” he added. “Our good friends from the state of Florida are backing us up.”
He said Collins “is fully embedded in our team. We are literally in the same room most hours doing stuff.”
“It’s not a political thing. It’s not a military thing. It’s an American thing,” he added. “That’s why we’re out there saving American lives.”
Project Dynamo
The organization, which initially worked to bring Americans home after the fall of Afghanistan, has helped people escape violence in Haiti, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now working to evacuate U.S. citizens visiting Israel.
On Thursday, a flight carrying about 30 American veterans on a retreat to Israel landed at Miami International Airport as a result of the organization’s efforts.
“Our people are experts at going into foreign countries, building human networks and putting together the logistics required to get people out of an area that’s very bad and where they don’t to be,” James Judge, a member of Project Dynamo, said by phone from Cyprus, where he is arranging marine transportation for evacuees. “It’s not just wars and conflicts. It’s any crisis where Americans need to get out of a bad place.”
The group participated in the Florida project to evacuate people after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel. It says that since its inception in 2021, the group has rescued over 7,000 people from conflict zones and disaster areas — including Afghanistan, Ukraine, Mexico, Haiti, Sudan, and Israel.
As with any complicated rescue project, Project Dynamo needs funding. It operates offices in Naples and Tampa and two in Texas.
“Everything we do needs to be proper,” Judge said. “We make sure every American has documentation. We also do a lot of permanent [U.S.] residents and our allies too.”
“We have gotten a lot of support from a lot of public officials,” Judge added. “It doesn’t matter what political leaning you are. If you are in harm’s way we will come to get you.”’
Those who need help can visit projectdynamo.net. The group also needs more donations to help more people, he said.
Focuspoint International
At an operations center in Sunrise, staffers are helping clients who have paid for a form of insurance that provides help escaping conflict zones.
Greg Pearson, founder, CEO and also a military veteran, said the company specializes in emergency response as a service. Clients pay upfront for the service plan they need. “You don’t pay for utilization,” he said.
While not travel insurance per se, the company’s plans more resemble a roadside assistance plan for vehicles.
“We have seen, since June 15, roughly 400 requests for assistance,” he said. “We have conducted hundreds of evacuations since June 13.”
Frontline Global
The Fort Lauderdale-based company says it is a membership-based travel assistance and emergency evacuation organization that is now conducting operations across Israel for members and non-members.
In a statement, the company said it has Americans on the ground in Israel and Jordan.
“Frontline Global is on the ground, working tirelessly to provide safe passage for those caught in this rapidly evolving crisis,” co-founder Chris Gavaghen said in a prepared statement. “Our American teams are fully operational, offering door-to-door expedited services to ensure American citizens and others can reach safety in Jordan, Egypt, or Cyprus. We urge anyone needing assistance to contact us immediately.”
Gavaghen could not be reached for further comment.
But the company said it is “leveraging its extensive experience in crisis zones to facilitate safe crossings through operational land borders, including the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge, Jordan River/Sheikh Hussein, and Yitzhak Rabin/Wadi Araba crossings to Jordan, as well as the Taba crossing to Egypt.”
Limited flights are available from Amman, Jordan, and Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the company said, and it is “coordinating logistics to ensure seamless transitions.”
The company, which was founded last year, can be reached by visiting IsraelEvac@frontlineglobal.io. It maintains offices on three continents and employs a team of “critical care paramedics, former U.S. special operations, U.S. intelligence professionals, and crisis response experts.”
Costs vary
The price of evacuations appears to be fluid, depending on a person’s situation, transportation needs and other factors.
James Judge of Project Dynamo said it costs the nonprofit roughly $1,000 per person to arrange an exit from Israel
Eric Weinbaum, the Boca Raton resident who came home on the strength of his own family’s arrangements, said each person in his party was charged $100 a head for a van ride to the Jordanian border. There were taxes and fees on both sides of the border.
But by his reckoning, money was not an issue as he entrusted the task of making the family travel arrangements to his son and the son’s fiancee.
“I said, ‘here’s my credit card, just do it,’” Weinbaum recalled. “You can’t spend money six feet under.”
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