So I'm somewhat late to this thread.

Dov - I came on here after seeing earlier that Yiron is part of the evacuation order in the North. (After evacuating 60k+ people from communities that are within 15 seconds rocket range from Gaza, Israel is now doing the same in the North; Dov's kibbutz is on the evacuation list.)

I arrived in Israel (with Mrs CO FF) on the 28th. (I joined the grandpa ranks on Sept 26; he is, of course, adorable. Unfortunately, my daughter-in-law has been a single parent since the morning of the 7th, when my son was called to active duty. Life in Israel means you go to the Army when the country is attacked...even if it means leaving an 11 day old child.)

We were supposed to leave on the 11th, flying UA. That was cancelled. We rebooked for the 15th on UA; ditto. We rebooked for the 15th on EK; ditto. Now we're rebooked tomorrow on LY to a city in Europe, and UA the rest of the way to LAX. UA has done a pretty good job (a few 1K agents didn't know that they had near-total flexibility, but HUCA worked well).

BIG kudos for the staff at the Ritz-Carlton Herzliyah. We moved here on points (to get a little further north from Gaza) on the 10th. For 48 hours, it was the quintessential RC experience: attentive staff, gourmet food, lovely facilities. Then, on the 12th, while we were with family (doing laundry...the laundry prices here are a bit steep), the RC took in 50+ families that had been evacuated from the Gaza area. Gone was the quiet tranquility.

Instead, I've witnessed the most amazing display of HOSPITALITY that I've ever seen from a hotel. They went from sub-50% occupancy to 100% occupancy in an afternoon, with barely any warning. Since all nearby restaurants are closed, they had to provide 100% meal service to most guests. They switched from the restaurant to the catering facilities for all meals, and had full Israeli buffets 3x daily. The staff treated all of the evacuee guests as if they were Lifetime Diamond members; they literally moved tables around to let one older couple sit where they wanted. And taking care of the evacuees did not stop the hotel from providing typical Ritz-Carlton level service to the already-booked customers; there is turndown service to every room, we had a sommelier break away from doing double-duty running food to the buffet Friday night to recommend wine, and the bartender was even apologetic when the crush of business Saturday night forced them to have to make our "last call" round of drinks in the "wrong" type of glass.