Americans who were in Israel during the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack were left stranded, unable to reach U.S. Embassy officials, forcing them to stay or make their own way out of the country, according to an American who shared her experience with Breitbart News.
Silver Prout, a former Trump official at the Department of Homeland Security, was visiting Israel as part of a church group tour when Hamas terrorists went on a brutal killing spree in southern Israel, massacring more than 1,400, including innocent women and children.
Prout said when the attack happened on Saturday, October 7, members of the tour group tried to reach the U.S. Embassy in Israel, but were not able to reach anyone for several days, since the embassy was closed on Monday, October 9, due to the Christopher Columbus holiday.
“This is the crazy part. Obviously this happened Saturday morning. Saturday, Sunday, and then Monday is Columbus Day. So guess what? The Embassy in Jerusalem was closed and not answering their phones,” she said. “And so we get a voicemail like, ‘Today is a U.S. holiday, so our hours are eight to five, Monday through Friday. We’ll touch base with you tomorrow.”
“So, on Monday, we had zero response from the U.S. embassy in Israel because it was closed,” she said. She said they finally got a response on Tuesday, October 10, and their recommendation was to keep their original flights out later that Friday. However, their original flights were then canceled and the earliest available flights were not until October 16.
Meanwhile, the White House was insisting as late as October 11 that there were commercial options available for Americans looking to leave,
Eventually, Prout and dozens of other Americans were rescued by Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL), who flew personally to Jordan and went across the border into Israel to escort her out. Mills, an Army veteran, relied on his Arabic-speaking skills to negotiate with Jordanian officials to get them out, she said.
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“He did what our administration failed to do,” Prout said. “He immediately started helping to save American lives and get them safely home, while the State Department was still silent and telling us sorry, ‘Find your own way home,'” she said.
It was not until October 12 — five days after the attacks — that the Biden administration would order evacuation flights to begin the next day.
Prout and the group had arrived in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, October 4. On that fateful October 7 morning, the plan was to drive up to Golan Heights, until reports of the attacks began rolling in.
“Our tour guide got up and we pulled the bus over and the team kind of gave us some background on what happened. My immediate response was, ‘Israel’s used to this, right?’ Like…They’re no stranger to attacks. But when I got on Twitter and started kind of trying to see some some of the initial reports, I just knew in my gut that there was something different about this,” she said.
The group went back to the hotel to shelter in place and wait for updates. “There was a lot of uncertainty,” she said.
Later that Saturday, Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu declared war.
“It was surreal being there for that but my reaction was, okay, we need to start figuring out logistics and getting out of here ASAP,” she said.
She said the tour company wanted to continue the tour and to take them to the Jordan River to be baptized the next morning on Sunday.
“So we did have a special morning there in on the Jordan. I personally got baptized. And that was, I mean definitely a surreal moment for me and I did have a peace in my heart, like, I knew I was going to be okay. But I knew I wanted to do everything possible to try to to leave before things got worse,” she said.
The tour company advised them to keep their original flight home that Friday.
“I did not want to stay in the country until Friday and just wait it out,” she said. She said she was told that going into Jordan alone as an American would be dangerous.
She said she saw more and more flights being canceled, and then saw that Iceland, Brazil, and Mexico started evacuation flights.
She said she began to think, “This is obviously getting more serious by the minute. Where is the State Department?”
Prout said she called one of her colleagues back in the U.S., Erica Knight, and said, “We’ve got to do something. I don’t care. Can we start a pressure campaign against the State Department to see if we can start a movement to get evacuation flights?”
“I was like other countries are doing it and clearly it’s a full-scale war. This is what they should be doing and I said we don’t want this to turn into another Afghanistan if we keep waiting,” she said.
By the next morning, on October 10, Prout’s plight was published in the New York Post and Mills’ chief of staff had reached out to tell her that Mills was on the ground in Jordan and wanted to get her and everyone he could to get across the border to Jordan.
US church group trapped in Israel begs Biden administration to help evacuate citizens https://t.co/WeuIbZCDn1 pic.twitter.com/sPCnmI21e7
— New York Post (@nypost) October 10, 2023
Prout said the church group was hesitant and wanted to stay with the tour company, but she decided to leave with Mills. She said originally he planned to enter Israel in an armored car, but he ultimately took a taxi into Israel to get her.
“This also this was his first time ever crossing in Israel…So he took a taxi from the border to Tiberias, which is about 40 minutes. And came and got me in and I met him in the lobby,” she said.
“And I just remember I was like, ‘Yep, this is this is someone I’ll be safe with,'” she recalled.
They met up with another group of Americans in Israel, and together they crossed into Jordan, where transportation was waiting.
“They brought us to a hotel in Amman, and he had a room for everyone. He paid out of pocket for hotels for everyone that night while we figure it out on flights the next day,” Prout said.
“I had no words for how selfless he was and how reassuring he was to the entire group to get us, you know, safely to Jordan and to get flights out. And he paid for the taxi, he paid for all the visas and all the transportation out of pocket.”
In contrast, Prout said after the State Department began evacuation flights, they asked Americans to sign a form saying they would pay back the U.S. government, and they were only flights to Athens, Frankfurt, or Cyprus, and Americans did not have a choice in where to go.
“When you think of how much money we give overseas, like, how much money we can shell out — and an American has to sign a form saying, ‘Okay, I’ll pay you back’?” she added.
Prout said the State Department’s response was not surprising, but disheartening.
“This administration puts American citizens last and their response is not surprising,” she said. “It was disheartening. I love this country. I want America to always be the one who’s first to act and to be the first on the scenes to help.”
But, she added, “I think in the midst of my disappointment with with our government, I was reminded that in moments like that people like Congressman Mills, and his staff, they step up to the bat and show the goodness of America.”
“He restored my faith in members of Congress, honestly, because it seems like if there’s men like him in D.C., there’s hope for America. He’s, he’s definitely a patriot,” Prout concluded.
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