The United States Government today banned all travel by American citizens to Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. State Department sources indicated that American Zionist leaders would be prohibited from visiting Israel unless they can establish to the State Department’s satisfaction that their trip is in “the best interest of the United States.”
Earlier, the Defense Department announced that cargo-type ships under protection of two U.S. Navy destroyers have been ordered to stand by at Haifa to remove U.S. citizens. A total of 546 Americans have been evacuated by air, the State Department said.
Reports reaching here from Tel Aviv indicated that evacuation of United States citizens from Israel went ahead at full speed today. Some 500 American–including many family members of personnel at the U.S. Embassy and of the U.S. Operations Mission–were evacuated.
At the same time, many American tourists left the country aboard six U.S. Air Force planes which flew into Lydda for the special evacuation airlift. Two more American airplanes were expected to continue that airlift. Only one American ship–a destroyer–reached Haifa today for the evacuation of American nationals. Two other ships–scheduled to be in Haifa today–had not yet arrived.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
