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Americans waiting to evacuate Israel by sea hope for safety and respite

HAIFA (JTA) — Before boarding a ship departing from Israel, Ariela Keshet explained that she has attended three funerals this week — two for soldiers killed in Israel’s war with Hamas, and one for a victim of the terror group’s massacre at an outdoor music festival.

Now, she is welcoming the chance to leave for Cyprus, where the family will take refuge before returning to their home in the Golan Heights, close to Israel’s borders with Syria and Lebanon. 

“It has been stressful, especially for people who have lived here before with rockets,” she said, explaining that in 2006, during Israel’s war with Lebanon, she lived in Tzfat — another northern city close to the border.  “It was traumatic — I’d rather not relive that,” she said. 

But Keshet added that “within one family, you can have all of those different levels of concern” — and hers is no exception. 

“I don’t want to go. I think it is wrong to leave our country and my brother agrees with me,” her daughter, Emunah, 14, protested as the family prepared to board.

The family was among hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian Americans, along with other U.S. citizens who happened to be in Israel when Hamas attacked, to wait in line for hours to board a boat evacuating U.S. citizens and their family members from the embattled country as it prepares to ramp up its war with Hamas in Gaza.

The U.S. embassy announced the rare step late of Saturday, instructing Americans to get to the Haifa port by 9 a.m. Monday with a maximum of one piece of luggage, a carry-on and no pets. Passengers had to promise to pay back the as-yet-undetermined cost of the trip and where they went from Cyprus after the roughly 12-hour journey would be up to them.

The boat left at 3 p.m., six hours after citizens were asked to arrive at the port.

In line at the Haifa port’s terminal, a mix of English, Hebrew, Arabic and Russian could be overheard. For Kristen, Sandy and Debby, three American Christians caught in Israel at the wrong time, the trip to Cyprus is an “unexpected adventure” to conclude an unforgettable vacation. “We are praying for peace and the safety for everyone living here,” said Kristen, who is from Arizona and declined to give her last name.

Roughly 500,000 American citizens live in Israel, and the crowd at the port represented only a tiny fraction of that. Many are choosing to stay and join in the effort to support the war and the people and communities affected by Hamas’ attack, which has transformed Israel into a country of volunteers.

Cheryl Rosenberg, 31, for example, told JTA that she did not consider leaving because she felt loyal to Israel during a time of crisis. (She also noted that the embassy didn’t say how much the trip would cost.) “This is our home and I don’t want to run away,” she said. “I want to do what I can to help.”

American citizens wait to evacuate Israel via the Haifa Port, Oct. 16, 2023. (Eliyahu Freedman)

Scott, a 25-year-old Christian Palestinian-American from Minnesota who also declined to share his last name, arrived at the Haifa port at 1 a.m. after abruptly leaving Bethlehem in the West Bank, where he has studied Arabic for the past few months. 

“The streets are empty in Bethlehem and the main road is blocked off. The Arabic program moved online but most of the students left the program,” he said. “Everyone in the West Bank is treating it like the weather. If you are hit by a snowstorm, you go to the store and prepare for the worst, but nobody has control over the weather.”

While the United States has offered pathways for its citizens to leave Israel and Palestinian areas, and has sent aid to Israel, Scott said he thought Palestinians are not being sufficiently protected and criticized the United States’ approach to the conflict.

“They said they want to bring in these big boats to deter any violence,” he said, referring to aircraft carriers the United States has moved to the eastern Mediterranean as a warning to nearby countries not to get involved in the war. “But what about the violence in Gaza? Is one more important than the other?”

That criticism did not stop Scott from striking up a friendship with Tony Wolf, 30, an Israeli-American pharmacist from the central city of Kfar Saba who arrived an hour later than him. 

“When a Palestinian and a Jewish person meet, we are friends with a similar culture. We have no problems when politics are aside,” Wolf said, adding that he needs “to clear out” his mind. He said he was traumatized by the death of “a lot of my friends who were killed in the army and party and rescue missions.”

For some passengers, the journey was fraught with emotional pain. Alan Cohen, a 56-year-old Israeli-American English teacher who grew up in Israel and served in its military, said the war was the last straw before making the painful decision to “leave behind all my possessions” and leave the country “heartbroken and regretting it.” 

“Everything here [was] extremely difficult and frustrating” even prior to the war, Cohen said, adding, “If the war was not happening I would be leaving anyways.”

Cohen said that he has had difficulty obtaining a pension in Israel and plans to teach at a Hebrew school in Massachusetts, where he will “tell the truth about Israel” and the challenges new immigrants face.

“If anybody wants to make aliyah and come here, I say don’t,” he said, using the Hebrew term for Jewish immigration to Israel. “I really do not know if I will come back or not. Come back to what?”


The post Americans waiting to evacuate Israel by sea hope for safety and respite appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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