Fresno woman worried over Israel travel ban

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A rocket attack near the Tel Aviv airport prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to cancel all US flights to and from Israel.

The travel ban caught a Fresno woman by surprise. Her daughter just bought a ticket to Israel.

Jeanna Francis' daughter now lives in Los Angeles. She hoped to fly out in late August.

At this point Delta Airlines and United Airlines have suspended all flights to Israel indefinitely.

Despite the often violent images of combat we see in the region Jeanna Francis of Fresno has always thought of Israel has a safe place.

Francis said, "I was really shocked the situation that we have considered the situation has become that dire that we would grounding airplanes and then my next thought was, oh my gosh my daughter just bought a ticket to Israel."

Her daughter Eliana Fenn spent time in Israel in June and planned to return next month to work on a Master's Degree.

"I said to her do you realize there's a war going on? Maybe you could wait another year to do this project, this program."

That doesn't appear likely.

Temple Beth Israel sometimes will organize trips to the holy land. Rabbi Rick Winer said most of the people traveling to Israel do so to show support for the country.

Rabbi Winer said, "This is not a recent development. It's a recent escalation. I don't think it's terribly unsafe to travel there at this point."

River Park Travel encourages people to buy insurance when visiting areas where travel warnings have been issued like Israel.

Travel agent Kyle Marney said, "We have customers getting ready to travel in the fall this year and hopefully by the time they get ready to go things will be somewhat stable."

Rabbi Winer said, in reality, violent crime in the states is worse than the violence we see in Israel. He explained, "I tend to find it's safer to live in most Israeli cities than it is to live here in our own state which is unfortunate."

Because of the growing conflict though the US State Department encourages Americans to delay any travel to Israel at this time.