AVENTURA, FLA. (WSVN) - - Hundreds of people touched down at Tampa International Airport after the state of Florida, along with private organizations, teamed up to rescue Americans stuck in Israel amid the ongoing war.
Among those on early Friday morning’s flight was City of Aventura Commissioner Paul Kruss and his family.
Kruss hopped on the latest flight to the Sunshine State after he and his family decided to cut their trip in Israel short due to the ongoing conflict. After he landed in Tampa, he told 7News he was thankful to be home.
“It was amazing. I love this country,” he said.
During his trip abroad, Kruss spoke to 7News following the initial round of attacks between the two countries and showed 7News his bomb shelter.
“Last night we were awoken a couple of times with alarms, so we have to go to the safe room in our hotel in Tel Aviv,” he said.
As he saw the conflict had no end in sight, Kruss reached out to the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, which connected him and his family to Grey Bull Rescue, an international rescue organization that was hired by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to help with rescuing stranded Americans.
“They picked up everybody and we started on our track to Amman, Jordan,” said Kruss. “Governor DeSantis deserves a lot of credit because no other governor around the country has done that,” he said. (He) was there waiting for us, and I gave him a big hug.”
DeSantis greeted the evacuees and touted his administration’s efforts in rescuing these Americans in a press conference. He said the logistics of getting everyone back can be complicated.
“There’s definitely a need for more. I know we helped really get people out of Israel initially, which is important. I don’t know when the Ben Gurion Airport is going to open up again, and it may not open up for some time,” said DeSantis.
Kruss said he and his family spent four days traveling on buses and planes to Jordan and then Cyprus because Israel’s airspace was off limits.
“The airspace in Israel has had been shut down completely. No airplanes going in, no flights going out.”
He said they were told to conceal their faith while taking the journey.
“Going through Jordan, it’s not exactly a friendly country, even though there’s a cold peace with Israel, so they told us not to use anything that would show us as being Jewish, whether it’s a Star of David or a kippah, yarmulke,” said Kruss.
But Friday, he joined over 100 other people who landed safely in Tampa.
“As difficult a journey and as complicated as it got, I just really value the fact that the governor with the whole state apparatus was really engaged and being an example to other communities,” said Kruss.
Other evacuees in Tampa said they were also relieved to be home after what they witnessed in Israel.
“We were very terrified, because we’ve never experienced any of that,” said Rebecca Zager. “Every night we had to go into a bomb shelter, three or four times a night, and then it started during the daytime. It was very hard. They did not like us, but they were happy to Americans there.”
“We can hear the missiles, absolutely terrifying,” said Robyn Spirtas.
“You have 90 seconds to two minutes to basically take, in our case, our 6-month-old baby, just run to the bomb shelter,” said Josh Hammer.
But many remain stuck in Israel and are waiting for their turn to get out, including the daughter of Rabbi Yossi Harlig. The 20-year-old, named Tova, is in Israel after finishing her studies and now is trying to get back to the United States.
Harlig said he’s praying to God for his daughter’s safe return.
“Hopefully Sunday, if not Monday. She’s leaving the school tomorrow, driving to Jerusalem. She wants to be there a day in advance, in case missiles go off in the middle of the night, she can’t leave,” said Harlig.
DeSantis said the rescue operation has helped over 4,000 Americans get home safely.
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