Americans stuck in Middle East speak out amid strikes: ‘Beyond scared’

(NEXSTAR) – Several Americans have found themselves caught in the Middle East after Israel and the U.S. launched a surprise bombardment on Iran on Saturday. Iran has launched strikes in response as part of a widening war.

Hotels and airports in the region have become crowded in the aftermath, according to The Associated Press. There’s been no word on when many airports would reopen – important hubs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha were directly hit by strikes – or when flights to and through the Middle East would resume.

Airspace or airports in Israel, Qatar, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates were closed, according to flight tracking sites and government agencies there.

More than 2,800 flights were canceled Sunday to and from airports across the Middle East, including those that remained open in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt, according to figures on flight tracking site FlightAware. International airports in London, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangkok, Istanbul, Sri Lanka, and Paris each reported dozens of flights canceled, as well.

Cancellations will extend beyond Sunday, at least.

‘Ready to come home’: Trapped Americans speak out

“I am beyond scared,” Susie, an Oklahoma City resident originally from Lamar, Missouri, wrote on social media early Saturday morning. The woman, whose last name was withheld for safety, said she was part of a group of 36 Americans touring Israel with a travel agency when the bombardment began.

In a series of posts, Susie explained that the group was unable to leave Israel quickly after flights were suspended and that they ended up in a bomb shelter.

Traces of an air defense missile interception are seen over Jerusalem’s Old City, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Trace of an air defense missile interception during an Iranian attack is seen over Jerusalem’s Old City, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Traces of an air defense missile interception are seen over Jerusalem, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Traces of an air defense missile interception are seen over Jerusalem, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

“I am just a little farm girl from [southwest Missouri] right in the middle of the forthcoming war in the Middle East,” she wrote in another post. “I’m just a little girl from [southwest Missouri] who is scared to death. The airport is closed down, and I can’t get to Jordan. I am in God’s hands.”

She later told Nexstar’s KTXL that they were able to spend Saturday night in a hotel near the border of Egypt, though they experienced additional air raids and were again hiding in a bomb shelter.

The group was set to take a 10-hour bus ride to Cairo, where the travel agency – which did not immediately respond to KTXL’s request for comment – was expected to fly them home. Susie said that while she was grateful to be out of Israel, she was still scared.

Meanwhile, a father and daughter from Lexington, North Carolina, remained in Jerusalem as of Sunday.

Assistant youth pastor Chris Elliott and his daughter, Riley, told Nexstar’s WGHP that they traveled to Israel in honor of Riley’s graduation. The 17-year-old high school senior “wanted to be rebaptized in the Jordan River and walk where Jesus walked,” as well as to cross the Sea of Galilee.

The pair arrived on Wednesday and planned to stay until March 7 with members of their church, Madison Heights Freewill Baptist. They told WGHP’s Cassie Fambro via Zoom that the attack was “a total surprise,” and recounted hearing bombs in the air.

“I think we take our freedom for granted,” Chris added. “When we get over here and we realize, you’ve got to look over your shoulder, and you have to jump into a bomb shelter every time your phone rings, man, it’s really eye-opening.”

Riley echoed her dad’s remarks, explaining that they received communion and held mass in the shelter.

You can watch their conversation with WGHP in the video player below.

“Still scary, when you hear the alarms, you hear the sirens, your phone is going off, you see people running. They told us, watch what they do. If they’re running to an area, we should follow them,” Chris explained while also crediting Israel’s Iron Dome. “It’s been crazy, I’m ready to come home.”

As of Sunday, it wasn’t clear how the Elliotts and those they traveled with would return home, though they said they were safe in the hotel they were staying in.

Others in the Middle East await flights

Louise Herrle and her husband had their flight to Washington canceled on their way back to their Pittsburgh home after a tour of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, with no word when they could reschedule.

“We’re in the hotel room, we are not leaving it, so you’re not going to give it up until we know we have a flight out of here,” Herrle told the AP. “I’m sure everyone else is in the same situation.”

Kristy Ellmer, an American who had been on business meetings in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, told the outlet that she was staying in a hotel and keeping multiple flights booked in case airports reopen. She said she was gaining confidence in the government’s ability to protect the city from missiles, but also keeping away from windows when she hears explosions.

“You hear a lot of explosions at times, there’s hundreds of them,” Ellmer said. “And so when we hear them we sort of just don’t stay near the windows just in case the glass was to break or there was some impact.”

Iran vows revenge, trades strikes with Israel in widening war

Iran vowed revenge Sunday after the killing of its supreme leader and traded strikes with Israel as part of a widening war prompted by a surprise U.S. and Israeli bombardment. The U.S. military said three service members have been killed, the first known American casualties from the conflict.

Blasts in Tehran sent a huge plume of smoke into the sky in an area of government buildings. Iranian authorities say more than 200 people have been killed since the start of the strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders. Iran fired missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states in retaliation while Israel pledged “non-stop” strikes against Iran’s leaders and military.

In Israel, loud explosions caused by missile impacts or interceptions could be heard in Tel Aviv. Israel’s rescue services said nine people were killed and 28 wounded in a strike that hit a synagogue in the central town of Beit Shemesh, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 11. Eleven people were still missing after the strike, police said, as rescue crews combed the rubble.

The U.S. military, meanwhile, said B-2 stealth bombers have struck Iran’s ballistic missile facilities with 2,000-pound bombs. U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media that nine Iranian warships had been “destroyed” and sunk, “some of them relatively large and important,” and that the Iranian navy’s headquarters had been “largely destroyed.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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