US group stands ready to evacuate Americans from Israel

(JNS) — As tensions between Israel and Iran escalate, a group of American military veterans is preparing to evacuate U.S. citizens from the region for the second time since Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught on southwestern Israel.

“Our ambition is for every American who travels to know that Project DYNAMO is there to help them if the need were to arise,” Mario Duarte, president and CEO of the Florida-based organization, told JNS on Sunday. 

Project DYNAMO was created in 2021, as the United States pulled forces out of Afghanistan. After the withdrawal, the organization’s first major mission rescued 117 stranded Americans in a single day, marking one of the largest private evacuations in U.S. history.

Since then, the project has carried out over 600 missions, rescuing over 7,000 Americans from conflict and disaster zones across the globe. 

“We went into Afghanistan as a group of volunteers to help Americans in harm’s way. From that, our organization was born and we have since rescued people from Israel, Russia, Sudan and Ukraine,” said Duarte. The group has also operated in Brazil, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Guatemala, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, among many others.

“As part of our latest mission in Haiti, we extracted close to 300 people, including from allied European countries, who needed to leave. We transported them to the Dominican Republic and they continued their way back home,” he added. 

In the week following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror invasion, DYNAMO evacuated 370 people from Israel via an aircraft funded by the state of Florida at the directive of Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“We were in the country on Oct. 9, started collecting people and putting them in safe places before taking them on the airplane we managed to secure for them to go back to the United States,” Duarte explained. 

“They were from all over Israel, but especially from the south, and saw the need to leave because they felt in danger,” he said. 

“The purpose of our visit to Israel this time around, and of the visit of another team that is still in Lebanon, is to prepare for the evacuation of Americans and allies if hostilities worsen,” he said. 

“We focused on logistical processes such as preparing the places where we would gather all the evacuees, talking to different people who would assist us, preparing buses, trucks and deciding which way would be the safest for everyone to get out, whether it’s via boats by land or air,” Duarte continued. “We are trying to get Americans to register with us so that when the time comes, we will be able to help them out of the country.”

Once a person decides to register with the project, the organization maintains direct contact with them until the possible moment of extraction.

“As the situation worsens, we ask people to send us information relating to their U.S. passport or green card so that we can verify that their paperwork is valid and are ready to be extracted legally,” said Duarte. 

“Obviously, our systems are highly secure. We use the most advanced technology to protect their information and once the operation is completed, we only keep their names and contacts for future reference or to invite them to our functions where we celebrate success. We discard the rest of their private information,” he added.

Project DYNAMO coordinates with local authorities and local embassies to ensure the smoothest possible security processes.

“We get help from the government when it comes to coordinating the extraction of people. We also have our own capabilities to analyze the different scenarios and assess the probability of an attack or unwanted events,” said Duarte.

“All of us are veterans in the military and intelligence services and we have a lot of experience in collecting and analyzing intel at all levels,” he added. 

Because Project DYNAMO is funded by U.S. citizens, companies and other foundations, its charter obligates the group to care for Americans first.

“When we are planning, we always prepare extra spaces and we will take other citizens of other countries as long as they have registered with us,” Duarte told JNS. “We will leave no one behind and try to save everyone we can, but our priority will always be Americans,” he continued. 

Duarte told JNS that he is prepared for any eventuality in Israel. “It’s a matter of when, not if it’s going to happen, that’s how we anticipate it. It could be in a couple of days or weeks or even months, but something will happen and we just want to be ready,” he said. 

“We know how connected people are to Israel. We know they will always wait until the last minute to leave. That is why our main focus is to let people know that we are capable of and help them when the time comes,” he added.