American students reveal how they fled the Israel-Iran war

USA Today

10 hours ago

They left with excitement to visit a new country, connect with their Jewish identity and gain first-hand knowledge about one of the world's most storied regions. They left with memories of air raid sirens and bomb shelters.
After Israel's surprise attack on Iran earlier this month, young Americans on study abroad programs and birthright trips to Israel made harrowing escapes back to the U.S. as the two countries traded missiles and the American military directly entered the conflict, bombing three Iranian nuclear sites.
The thousands of escapees included 17 high schoolers from Arizona who huddled in bomb shelters before boarding a cruise ship to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. A dozen Florida State University students studying geopolitics in the Middle East fled to Israel's mountainous Dead Sea region and crossed into Jordan.
"It was a fear that I have never felt before," Aidan Fishkind, who was in Israel for a two-month birthright and internship program, told USA TODAY. "We had a missile land two miles from our hostel."
The conflict, which has calmed under a delicate ceasefire, came during Israel's busiest tourism season – when birthright trips and programs affiliated with American universities were in full swing.
According to the Birthright Israel Foundation, a nonprofit that sponsors young people to visit Israel, the group safely evacuated approximately 2,800 young adults from the country – many of them aboard a luxury cruise ship. The nonprofit canceled its scheduled programs through July 10, according to its website.
Meanwhile, the spiraling war also sent Americans in Iran looking for a safe place to wait out Israeli bombardments. Hundreds of Americans fled the country as the conflict escalated, according to an internal State Department cable seen by Reuters last week.
More: Iran-Israel conflict leaves Iranian Americans feeling helpless, hopeless
'I was scared for my life'
Fishkind, of Detroit, Michigan, arrived in Israel on June 3 for what was to be a two-month trip where he'd intern in the marketing department at the Jaffa Institute, a nonprofit based in Tel Aviv. But a little after his first week, the war broke out and left him and his fellow students scrambling for safety.
He recalled the first night after Israel launched its attack on Iranian nuclear sites and Iran responded with a barrage of missiles. He and his group of Detroit-area students received phone alerts about incoming rocket fire and rushed into rooms and stairwells designated "safe zones."
Throughout the night, he heard deep dooms that shook the building. He considered whether the rumbles were the sound of Israel's air defense system intercepting rockets or Iranian missiles landing in the city. It was both, he would later learn.
"I was scared for my life," he said.
In Detroit, his mother, Jennifer Fishkind, booked him multiple flights back home. But one-by-one each flight was canceled as Israeli officials closed the country's airspace.
"You just feel helpless being thousands of miles away," she said. "We kept telling him 'You're going to be OK. You're going to be OK.'"
The next day, Fishkind and his group left for the Dead Sea region in the south, which was considered much safer than Tel Aviv. There, Fishkind stayed in a hotel and met scores of other students from across the U.S. and Canada. After almost a week, he boarded a cruise ship to Cyprus.
Once on the island, he immediately got on a flight to Rome and, eventually, Detroit.
Fishkind, who is preparing for his junior year at Elon University in North Carolina, said being back home has been an adjustment. The memories of the sirens and the night he spent sheltering from missiles will take time to process, he said.
"When I got back home and laid in bed, I kept thinking 'Did that actually happen?'"
Tallahassee student recounts memories of sirens and bunkers
Madeline King traveled to Israel with a group of over 20 Florida State University students as part of a mission trip to examine and study the Israel-Gaza conflict. It was organized by FSU's Hillel, the university's largest Jewish campus organization.
The group was set to leave Israel and return to Florida on Saturday, June 14 – the day after the Israeli military attacked Iran's nuclear program. The unrest left them temporarily stranded in Tel Aviv, which had become a target of Iranian missiles.
"We would hear sirens through the night ... and at every time we would find ourselves going down to the bunkers," King told the Tallahassee Democrat, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Like Fishkind, her group headed to the Dead Sea region near the West Bank. They then crossed into Jordan, where they boarded a flight bound for Cyprus.
There, King and hundreds of others got on flights to Florida in an operation coordinated with the state's Division of Emergency Management agency. In all, more than 1,400 state residents have been evacuated from Israel by plane and passenger ferry, Florida state officials said last week.
A tearful reunion
The group of 17 high school students from Arizona arrived in Israel on June 4 and traveled through the country for a week, learning Jewish religious traditions and the culture and history of Israel.
Like their fellow American students, the group soon discovered they couldn't leave by plane as they had originally intended.
'It is such a helpless, scary feeling to have your child thousands of miles away going into a bomb shelter multiple times a day as warning sirens ring out and missiles approach Israel,' Brett Kurland, a parent to one of the Arizona students, said in a statement, according to the Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network.
With the help of Arizona Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, the students managed to get on a luxury cruise ship departing for Cyprus. After an 18-hour voyage they made it to the island and then flew back to the U.S.
Scores of families waited for the students at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on June 25. Some stood anxiously with homemade signs while others held flowers and balloons. When the students emerged from the jet bridge, the families cheered and embraced their loved ones in a tearful reunion.
Similar scenes unfolded at international airports across the U.S.
In Michigan, Jennifer Fishkind and a group of parents embraced their children as they descended from their plane at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport.
"After all that, you're just waiting to get your arms around them," Fishkind said. "It was the best feeling."