U.S. State Department officials on Monday updated a travel advisory for Israel, Gaza and the West Bank territory to “do not travel” as casualties mount on both sides of Israel’s escalating war with Iran.
The advisory states that Israel remained a target with high potential for terrorist attacks while also stating that the danger posed by missile strikes and UAV (drone) strikes continues to be present.
“The security situation in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem is unpredictable, and U.S. citizens are reminded to remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness as security incidents, including mortar and rocket fire and armed UAV intrusions and missiles, can take place without warning,” it reads.
More than 200 are dead in Iran and at least 18 are dead in Israel as the two Middle Eastern powers show no signs of coming to the end of a conflict that US critics of Israeli policy, including some allies of Donald Trump, believe was launched with the purpose of ending negotiations between the Trump administration and Iranian government over the latter’s nuclear program.
After five rounds of talks, progress was being made slowly but surely as Iranian officials signaled an openness to new concessions that made an agreement unlikely but possible. That ended with a dizzying round of Israeli airstrikes against Iranian targets including top officials involved with the nuclear program.
Israeli forces are said to have underestimated the ability of Iran’s millitary to regroup after initial losses, and Monday’s announcement by the State Department is a sign that Iran’s military capabilities, including the ability to strike Israeli cities including Tel Aviv are far from neutralized.
Members of the G-7 have called on the two countries to de-escalate, but the Trump administration is reportedly not planning to sign on to those calls.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, took the opposite tactic on Monday — even as he rejected the idea that his publicly-stated openness to assassinating Iran’s supreme leader could cause the conflict to spiral out of control.
“It’s not going to escalate the conflict, it’s going to end the conflict,” he told ABC News of that potential effort in an interview.
Attacks launched by the two countries continued on Monday; evacuation orders were issued for parts of both Tehran and Tel Aviv.
Trump surprised many in his voting coalition by publicly backing the Israeli strikes on Iran after it was reported earlier this year that the US president waved off a plan to support a similar operation with US assets. Reporting about the president’s shift in position has pointed to new evidence presented by US brass concerning the status of Iran’s nuclear weapons development as being a pivotal factor in his endorsement of the attack.
Americans are not banned from travel to Israel or any of the Palestinian territories under this pronouncement from the State Department, which the agency does not have the power to do. But officials warned Americans who choose to travel to Israel to avoid crowded places including security checkpoints, and “maintain a high degree of situational awareness and exercise caution at all times.”
