US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Tuesday advised US citizens in Israel wishing to leave the country to do so via Egypt, hours after the US urged all of its citizens in the Middle East to immediately evacuate the region amid fighting with Iran.

Israel’s airspace has been shut since Saturday morning, when it launched its preemptive strikes on Iran, and — unlike during the June 2025 war — flights from neighboring Jordan have also been limited by Iranian retaliatory strikes.

In a video posted to social media on Tuesday, Huckabee said the Tourism Ministry is providing bus services from Herzliya, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem to Taba, just across the border in Egypt. From there, he said, “limited” flights were available from the Taba International Airport, or ground transportation could be taken to Cairo, “where the airport is operating normally and efficiently.”

“The options are fairly limited,” Huckabee noted, a day after the US issued an urgent call for all of its citizens to evacuate all of the Middle East, including Egypt, “due to serious safety risks.”

The US ambassador pointed out that “the [Ben Gurion] airport is closed, of course, and we don’t know when it will be open or how many flights [will be available.]”

Huckabee said the embassy does not recommend travel through Jordan, “because of some challenges that are being faced there, the sporadic ability of the airport to be open, and the limited hours of the Allenby Crossing to get into Jordan.”

Watch my message to American citizens in Israel and be sure to register with the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP) to receive important........

© The Times of Israel