Some US colleges calling students back from Israel

Some US colleges are pulling students from overseas study programs in Israel as the Gaza war rages, AP reported late Thursday, though the relative calm beyond the immediate battle areas is raising questions in some quarters about why they had to leave.

Colleges say security was the top concern, citing advisories about hazardous travel from the US State Department and from insurance companies that cover students for health, accidents, security and even the cost of evacuation.

“On the one hand, we want to introduce students to the dimensions of conflict,” said Yehuda Lukacs, director of the Center for Global Education at George Mason University in Virginia. “But this was too much, because their safety and security were challenged.”

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