The State Department has begun evacuating nonessential diplomats and their families from the US embassy in Israel as hostilities between Israel and Iran intensify and President Donald Trump warns of the possibility of getting directly involved in the conflict.

A government plane evacuated a number of diplomats and family members who had asked to leave the country Wednesday, said two US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive diplomatic movements.

There was no indication of how many diplomats and family members departed on the flight or how many may have left by land routes to Jordan or Egypt.
The flight came shortly before US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on X that the embassy was making plans for evacuations by plane and ship for private American citizens.