Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida will help evacuate more Americans from Israel

Shauna Muckle, Tampa Bay Times on Jun 20, 2025

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TAMPA, Fla. — Sonia Delgado had spent more than eight hours in an airport in Larnaca, Cyprus, when she learned her rescue flight back to the United States, funded by the state of Florida, wasn’t coming that night.

The Atlanta resident had gone to Tel Aviv, Israel, with her daughter and best friend, who is Jewish. They were among the first to flee, aided by the state and Tampa nonprofit Grey Bull Rescue, as air sirens began to sound last week due to strikes between Israel and Iran.

With each leg of the days-long journey came a bump in the road, Delgado said. She spent six hours waiting to cross the border into Jordan on foot. She almost thought she wouldn’t be able to leave the airport in Amman, Jordan, amid resistance from officials there.

Delgado and hundreds more evacuees made it to Cyprus, but then their flight back to the states was delayed until the next morning. It was a scramble to find hotels, she said, and three dozen people slept in the airport.

“At this point everybody’s kind of lost faith,” she said.

But around 5:30 a.m. Friday, Delgado finally touched down in Tampa.

Bryan Stern, who founded Grey Bull Rescue in 2021 to rescue Americans from conflict zones abroad, had warned evacuees that the path home wouldn’t be easy.

“He said from the beginning, ‘This isn’t going to be smooth. I’m not Uber,’” Delgado said.

The state of Florida has funded two rescue flights with about 300 passengers to Tampa, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Friday morning. The state also coordinated a passenger ferry to evacuate more than 1,100 more Americans, he said.

But the calls for help are just beginning, volunteers with Grey Bull Rescue said. More than 4,600 people have sent the nonprofit requests for evacuation assistance, said Andrew Wilson, a volunteer and member of the organization’s board of directors.

“Evacuation flights are still ongoing as a part of Florida’s unprecedented mission to bring our residents home,” DeSantis said. “This operation will continue 24/7 with the safety and well-being of Americans and Floridians as our top priority.”

But Olivia Loughran, chief case manager for Grey Bull Rescue, said it’s “really up in the air” how many more missions the state will fund. In the past, the state has only paid for flights to Florida, she said. For the mission arriving Friday morning, the state covered hotels and buses over the Israel border as well, Loughran said.

Delgado’s experience demonstrates that it’s easy for logistics to fall apart amid airspace closures and other disruptions in the escalating conflict.

Earlier this week, Birthright Israel, an organization that funds trips to the country for Jewish young adults, announced DeSantis would be sending four charter planes to rescue hundreds of participants that had fled on a cruise ship to Cyprus.

Only one of the planes showed up, according to reporting from CBS 12 on Wednesday. The rest of the participants had to book commercial flights home, including the son of South Florida resident Jillian Marcus, she told the Tampa Bay Times in an email.

“Unfortunately ... U.S. Embassy-organized flights did not arrive and the process has not gone as smoothly or quickly as we expected,” Birthright Israel said in a statement provided to CBS 12. “Some travelers will depart on flights today, while others will remain in Cyprus for the time being.”

DeSantis did not address the Birthright Israel flights in his prepared remarks. The flights that arrived in Tampa Friday morning were not affiliated with that program.

Evacuees gathered near Airside F in Tampa International Airport, hugging and rushing to check in to their next flight. Some were heading back to New York and the West Coast.

Tallahassee residents Sarah and the Rev. John Hall led a group of 19 people, mostly Christians, on an educational trip from Florida to Israel. They were staying near the Dead Sea, in eastern Israel, when they were told to gather in Jerusalem and hop on a bus Tuesday morning.

They went days with little food and water and minimal bathroom breaks, Sarah Hall said.

“We had a lot of trauma bonding,” she said. “It was a great way to learn what life has been like for the last couple years for our Israeli friends.”

State Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, was on the ground in the Middle East assisting evacuees, Stern said. The Florida Division of Emergency Management and the state transportation department, plus hired contractors, are also helping coordinate rescue missions out of Israel in partnership with Grey Bull.

In October 2023, the state helped evacuate almost 700 Americans from Israel to Florida, the Governor’s Office said.