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<\/a><\/p>\nPassengers at Ben Gurion International airport near Tel Aviv, Feb. 26, 2026. (Avshalom Sassoni\/Flash90)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Huckabee emailed embassy staff on Friday morning saying that if they want to leave, they should do so \u201cTODAY,\u201d according to a letter first reported by The New York Times. He noted that commercial flights could become scarce and urged them to accept passage to any country before returning to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no need to panic, but for those desiring to leave, it\u2019s important to make plans to depart sooner rather than later,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
The letter comes a day after U.S.-Iran talks in Geneva ended without public breakthroughs. Iranian officials, as well as the Omani mediators, said additional conversations were planned for next week; the United States did not comment. Steve Witkoff and Jared Kusher, two Jewish advisors to President Donald Trump who successfully brokered a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war last year, are leading the U.S. delegation.<\/p>\n
Trump has been threatening to attack Iran for weeks over its nuclear program and has built up U.S. military forces in the Middle East to levels not seen in decades. In recent days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance have both said military intervention could be needed while saying the president continued to prefer diplomacy.<\/p>\n
Vance\u2019s comments were particularly notable because he typically opposes U.S. intervention overseas. He told the Washington Post in comments published Friday morning that there was \u201cno chance\u201d that the United States would get involved in an extended Middle East campaign.<\/p>\n
Iran has said it would consider Israel a valid target in the event of a U.S. attack. Last year, Iranian missiles killed more than two dozen people in Israel during a 12-day war initiated by Israeli strikes on Iran\u2019s military program. Now, Israelis have been living in limbo for weeks while waiting to learn whether a new war, expected to be more destructive, will begin.<\/p>\n
In the past, when expecting Iranian retaliation, the embassy has warned staff against leaving population centers in Israel. Now, the Department of State has updated its Jerusalem embassy website to reflect \u201cthe authorized departure of non-emergency U.S. government personnel and family members of U.S. government personnel to leave Israel,\u201d setting a status that means flights will be paid for by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n
While El Al, Israel\u2019s national carrier, does not fly during Shabbat, other airlines typically do run some flights to and from Ben Gurion Airport on Friday nights and Saturdays. Many of those are budget European airlines that have only recently resumed flying to Israel after last year\u2019s Iran war; some airlines, including KLM, have already suspended Israel flights in anticipation of another conflict.<\/p>\n