As the Israel-Hamas war continues into a deadly second week, American citizens in the region are still trying to get out.
The U.S. State Department on Monday announced that it is continuing charter flights out of Tel Aviv for now. The state department is urging American citizens to get on those charter flights as soon as they can because they won’t always be available.
In Israel, Americans can get on those flights out of Tel Aviv through Thursday. The flights are operating on a rolling basis, depending on the conditions.
In Gaza, the Rafah crossing into Egypt is open for now to U.S. citizens and other foreigners.
The state department sent an email to Americans in Gaza, calling the situation at the Rafah crossing "fluid and unpredictable," suggesting that people make their way to the crossing because there would likely be little notice of when the crossing would open, and it might not be open for long.
Thousands of other American citizens were leaving Israel's Haifa Port for Cyprus on Monday.
The U.S. government is only arraigning travel out of Israel. After that, passengers are on their own to make it all the way home.
NBC Bay Area photojournalist Edwin Alvarado is among the Americans who have made it out, but he hasn't made it back to the states yet. As of Monday, he was in Colombia thanks to the Colombian air force, which picked him and other passengers up in Tel Aviv, transported them to Portugal, the Dominican Republic and finally Colombia, where Alvarado is originally from.
Alvarado said it was an excruciating wait to get out.
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"Emotional for us when I get out and I see family members, families waiting for the loved ones," he said. "It's hard. It's hard when you feel this fear of you can be killed any second."
Other families were reunited in Tampa, where almost 300 Americans arrived stateside, including almost 100 children.
They were transported by nonprofit Project Dynamo, with the help of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The state department is working with Delta, American and United airlines in the effort to get people home or to safety.
