Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and his wife, Casey DeSantis, warmly welcomed hundreds of Americans who were stuck in Israel due to the Israel-Hamas war. After being stranded for days, 270 Americans landed at Tampa International Airport, with an additional seven evacuees landing in Orlando.
In a video shared on social media, DeSantis expressed his delight at the successful rescue operation, stating, “We’re here at Tampa airport. We are having our first flight of people being rescued from Israel and it’s landed. Over 260 people that wanted to get back to the United States and couldn’t do it … so we stepped up and led. We’re happy to be able to deliver this.”
Bryan Stern, CEO and founder of Project DYNAMO, the search and rescue non-profit organization facilitating the flight, revealed that the plane carried 270 passengers, including 91 children and four dogs. Upon their arrival in Tampa, many passengers were overcome with emotion and shed tears of relief.
According to Stern, the process of evacuating Americans from Gaza was challenging, and he refrained from commenting on future rescue operations.
Major airlines had canceled flights to and from Tel Aviv following Hamas’ attack on October 7. However, U.S. officials initiated charter flights to aid the stranded Americans, with the first flight arriving in Athens, Greece, on Saturday. The flights are departing from Ben Gurion International Airport.
Despite the Jewish day of rest, families arriving in New York and New Jersey on Sunday were allowed to board flights—marking the first exception made by Israeli airline El Al since 1982.
The U.S. State Department has received over 20,000 requests from U.S. citizens stuck in Israel and Gaza, seeking assistance with their departure.
To facilitate the return of Florida residents from Israel, DeSantis issued an executive order enabling flights back to the state and the transportation of essential supplies to Israel.
Speaking on Fox News, DeSantis expressed his determination to bring Floridians back home, stating, “I want to bring them back to the state of Florida, so we have planes ready.” He emphasized his pride in swiftly mobilizing resources and successfully reuniting families at no cost.
Astrid Martinez contributed to this report.
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