Raising travel warning, US urges citizens to rethink visiting Israel amid Gaza war
State Department says terrorists, lone actors may carry out terror attacks without warning following initial devastating terror onslaught
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The US State Department announced Wednesday that it has raised its travel advisory for Israel and the West Bank to Level 3, meaning that Americans are urged to reconsider travel there against the backdrop of the ongoing Gaza war.
Before the war, Israel and the West Bank were among places with a Level 1 travel advisory, which meant US citizens were urged to exercise normal precautions when visiting such places.
The travel advisory for Gaza remains at “Level 4 — Do Not Travel.”
Explaining the decision to raise the travel warning for Israel and the West Bank, the State Department said, “Terrorist groups, lone-actor terrorists and other violent extremists continue plotting possible attacks in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.
“Terrorists and violent extremists may attack with little or no warning, targeting tourist locations, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and local government facilities. Violence can occur in Israel and the West Bank and Gaza without warning. There has been a marked increase in demonstrations throughout Israel, some with little or no warning,” it added.
The alert came as Israel faces months of war, following a deadly onslaught orchestrated by the Hamas terror group Saturday morning.
Palestinian terrorists rampaged through the south of Israel, killing some 1,200 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and taking at least 100 captives to Gaza. Some 3,000 were injured.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 1,300 in the Palestinian enclave have been killed in retaliatory Israeli strikes. Israel said it is targeting terrorist infrastructure and all areas where Hamas operates or hides and that Israeli forces have killed some 1,500 Hamas terrorists who infiltrated into its territory since Saturday.
There have also been several deadly clashes on the northern border in recent days, some of them claimed by Palestinian terror groups operating out of Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon, and others by Hezbollah itself.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden has pledged to send more US munitions and military hardware and expressed revulsion at the “sheer evil” of the slaughter of civilians.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
