Tel Aviv, Israel
CNN
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Karen and Omri Mamon, a dual-Israel citizen of America and Israel, traveled to Israel last month to attend Omri’s sister’s wedding. They didn’t know they would spend their vacation searching for shelter and moving from one house to another.
A week after the wedding, Israel launched a surprising attack on Iran, and the missile began flying through the air, shutting down both airspace. Most flights from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv were cancelled, leaving many people stuck and unable to return home.
“On the first night we went down to the shelter three times. Since then we’ve been flying around between houses trying to find a safe room. Since then we’ve been trying to find a way out of Israel returning to Florida,” Omri Mamon told CNN.
Mamon said they had previously lived in Israel and had to evacuate.
“The bombs are big, the noise is very high. You can hear the bombs everywhere,” he added.
Dozens of Americans who were trying to leave Israel gathered at a hotel in central Israel on Saturday, where staff at the US embassy consulate began handling their departures.
Earlier in the week, US Israeli Ambassador Mike Huckabee announced on social media that the embassy was arranging evacuation flights and ships for American citizens who wanted to leave. Huckabee did not say when evacuation efforts would begin.
More than 25,000 people have been seeking information from the State Department about the “situation in Israel, the West Bank and Iran,” according to U.S. State Department spokesman Tammy Bruce. According to Huckabee, there are around 700,000 Americans living in Israel.
Several Americans at the hotel told CNN that the embassy organized a flight to Athens and from there they could return to the US. But when those flights were scheduled, it was unknown.
Mammons was on the list, but others, like Elana Heyman, are still waiting for processing.
Heyman traveled to Israel from Los Angeles with his family for a holiday in the beginning of June. Iranian missiles raided the building right next to the apartment they were staying in Tel Aviv. Apart from experiencing an earthquake, Heyman told CNN she had never felt such a strong shock wave before.
“It was so intense that I thought it hit our building. It really swayed us to the heart of it. …I actually heard the sound every night, and when I think about it, I hear it over and over again,” she said.
Anxious, 18-year-old daughter Noah said it was a horrifying experience.
“It was really bad. I was really scared. I just wanted to find a way out. …It’s a scary time to be here now,” she said.
As the evacuation process progresses slowly, Heyman, like many others, is still trying to find a way out of Israel. The US embassy last week said in a security alert that crossing lands from Israel to Jordan and Egypt is an option, but acknowledged that each has its own risks. Jordanian airspace has been closed sporadically since the start of the conflict, and the United States cannot provide emergency services to American citizens traveling the Sinai Peninsula to expel international flights from Egypt’s Sharm el Sheikh.
Some of the people waiting at the hotel didn’t want to name them, but CNN had around 30 Americans there to process for 3 hours, but were told to come back on another day as it was for families with older people, sick and children.
Mammons suspects that because his son has autism, they were dealt with very quickly.
“The main thing was to bring him back home. He was our priority. He had a really tough time here, sirens, noise, shelters and a lot of people screaming,” Karen Mammon said.
Despite feeling relieved that it was processed, Omri Mammon still says, “anything can happen.”
“We haven’t celebrated yet,” he said.
