MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - Another flight from Tel Aviv landed at Miami International Airport Thursday morning as more people tried to escape the war zone in the Middle East. While some are fleeing the region, others are heading towards it.
“We all are literally in mourning and in a state of shock,” Moshe Fraind said.
“On the day that the war broke out, my husband was called first thing in the morning to serve the country,” Elana Salomon said.
Salomon fled from the danger with her three small children.
“It’s very hard for me to leave Israel,” she said. “It was hard for me to leave my husband knowing he’s in danger himself to protect us.”
And there were many more like her as they arrived in South Florida.
“We had a lot of flights scheduled, I was going to go to maybe Dubai, maybe Canada first, we were trying to work everything out and the flights are crazy,” Tyler Kaufman said.
Kaufman brought as many belongings as he could, which included his pet cat. He’s planning to stay with family in Miami.
“I really don’t know when I’m going to be back and I had to take my cat with me because I didn’t want to leave him in Israel all alone,” he said.
Despite the uncertainty, others are voluntarily putting themselves in the war zone like Captain Jason Friedman, who is a firefighter with Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue.
He’s now in Jerusalem volunteering with the Emergency Volunteers Project and has been in Israel for roughly six days.
“It really tugged on my heart strings when you see the atrocities that were committed,” he said.
Right now, Friedman’s job is to respond to fire calls while dodging danger.
“Here in Jerusalem, we’ve only had, I think, one or two missile launches,” he said.
Friedman will remain in Israel for a week as he continues to volunteer.
“Hopefully, this will be, have some impact,” he said.
For those who are now seeking refuge in South Florida, they are staying hopeful.
“I just hope that Israel stays strong and I’ll be able to go back one day when everything is better,” Kaufman said.
The U.S. State Department on Thursday issued a worldwide travel warning cautioning people to stay alert at locations frequently visited by tourists.
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.