Governor DeSantis greets Americans evacuated from Israel at TPA: 'There was a need for help'
More evacuees from Israel arrive in Tampa
The second rescue flight from Israel to Florida arrived in Tampa early Friday, with Gov. Ron DeSantis on hand to personally greet the evacuees. FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis gave an update at Tampa International Airport early Friday as more flights carrying Jewish Americans evacuated from Israel are arriving in Tampa.
Prior to Friday's news conference, the governor greeted passengers as they returned to the U.S.
Pictured: Gov. Ron DeSantis greets passengers getting off a rescue flight from Israel at Tampa International Airport on June 20, 2025.
By the numbers:
DeSantis said the approximately 160 passengers who arrived Friday are among the more than 1,500 people the state of Florida, along with the Tampa-based nonprofit Grey Bull Rescue and Senator Jay Collins, R-Tampa, have helped evacuate from Israel.
The governor chartered multiple flights to Tampa, and evacuations are ongoing. The first arrived at TPA on Thursday morning.
Dig deeper:
The U.S. State Department issued a Level 4 "do not travel" advisory for Israel on Monday. That’s the highest level designated by the federal agency.
The governor said they chose to work with TPA because the last time the state carried out an operation like this, evacuating people from Israel in 2023, those flights landed at TPA. DeSantis said everything went smoothly then, so they chose to work with them again for this operation.
DeSantis said because of that operation in 2023, people reached out recently asking for help evacuating Israel.
He described Grey Bull as doing "Yeoman’s work."
PREVIOUS: Americans evacuated from Israel arrive in Tampa
What they're saying:
The passengers said they can’t even begin to express their gratitude to the state, Senator Collins and Grey Bull for helping bring them home. Many got emotional walking off the plane, cheering and singing the national anthem. When they made it through customs, Governor DeSantis and others, like members of Grey Bull, greeted them with hugs.
They said it feels like a dream to be back on American soil.
"I want to cry," Robyn Spirtas, from Bradenton, said. "I want to laugh. It’s just like we’re watching a movie. It doesn’t feel real yet, you know."
"We wish we could bring everyone to safety," Robyn’s husband Neil said. "I hope the state continues to do what they’re doing."
Pictured: Gov. Ron DeSantis greets passengers getting off a rescue flight from Israel at Tampa International Airport on June 20, 2025.
Robyn and Neil were in Jerusalem volunteering.
"Every night there were sirens and we were in a special area in our Airbnb all curled up and watching live missiles going overhead. We could hear the missiles. It was absolutely terrifying. I’m so grateful to be home," Robyn said, getting emotional.
"Every night we had to go into a bomb shelter, four times a night and we were very terrified because we have never experienced anything like that and then it started during the daytime," Rebecca Zager, who was in Israel or her nephew’s wedding, said.
Zager is from Atlanta. Many of the passengers had connecting flights to other parts of the country.
They’ve been on a long, exhausting journey that spanned several days. They traveled from Israel to Jordan, then to Cyprus where they got on a flight to Tampa. They described it as a harrowing journey.
"Everybody just cheered and the pilot made an announcement," Robyn said describing the moment they landed in Tampa around 4:30 a.m. Friday. "It was amazing. The whole airplane, we’ve become family. We’ve been traveling together for 75 hours through border crossings and buses."
Full news conference: Gov. DeSantis on rescue flights to TPA
Gov. Ron DeSantis gave an update early Friday on rescue flights from Israel arriving at Tampa International Airport.
At Friday's news conference, the governor talked about the complexity of overseas rescue missions in the midst of international conflict. He said this has been the most logistically challenging operation that the Division of Emergency Management has ever done due to several factors, including that the airport in Israel is currently closed.
"All of a sudden, to have this happen, you're really in no man's land," DeSantis said. "And so we understood there was a need for help."
Newsweek editor Josh Hammer, a South Florida resident who was on one of the rescue flights, spoke about what he witnessed in Israel before evacuating.
"You're essentially living on pins and needles for the bombs to go off," Hammer said. "And then you have basically 90 seconds or two minutes to take – in our case, our 6-month-old baby – and just run to the bomb shelter."
Pictured: Josh Hammer speaks at a news conference at Tampa International Airport on June 20, 2025.
What's next:
DeSantis said more flights will take place in the coming days, with organizers working "around the clock" to bring Americans back safely.
The governor’s office and Senator Collins urged Americans in need of evacuation from Israel to fill out the evacuation assistance form from Grey Bull Rescue on the state’s Division of Emergency Management’s website.
The Source: This story was written with information from Gov. Ron DeSantis and previous FOX 13 News reports.
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