Benghazi annex security team member details evacuation of North Dakota church group stuck in Israel

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US church tour group evacuated from Israel

Retired U.S. Marine Mark Geist, who helped rescue the church group from war-torn Israel, told ‘FOX & Friends Weekend’ how he helped them cross the border into Jordan before getting them back to American soil.

A member of the Benghazi Annex security team, Mark Geist, told "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Sunday how he was able to help evacuate a church group from North Dakota - who was stuck in Bethlehem - through Jordan before they returned to the U.S.

Fox News' Pete Hegseth asked Geist to explain how he helped them evacuate Israel.

"A friend of mine, his sister was on that tour. And had reached out to him who then he reached to me and asked if there was anything I can do help, and I got whole a list of people that I know overseas in Israel, find out more information for them," he said. 

Geist said the group of 84 Americans were told to stay where they were until they were contacted by the State Department. 

Mark Geist told Pete Hegseth on Sunday about how he helped an American church group stuck in Bethlehem evacuate Israel.  (Fox News)

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He added that many weren't comfortable staying in place and said they didn't have enough information to make a decision on what was best for the group. 

"The biggest thing I was able to do was help them have that information, understand what the situation was…Tel Aviv, the airport whether it was shutting down or not…the possibility of that, and other options - which was get across the border into Jordan - and you know, they made the decision, they did what they needed to do after they got the information. And luckily, we were able to get them all out, and they got across the border into Jordan on Tuesday after the war had started, and now they're all home safe back in North Dakota," he said. 

Hegseth also asked about other groups potentially stranded in Israel. 

"I found out about two more and reached out to try to got ahold of them, never got any response back. I think things by that time had moved forward enough where people were making better decisions and getting better information. But you know it was just – like I said, I’ve got to give it to the Lord for just putting me in that spot, being able to make a difference in somebody’s life," he said. 

An Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome defence missile system attempts to intercept a rocket, fired from the Gaza Strip, over the city of Netivot in southern Israel on October 8, 2023.  (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

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Geist also said the impending ground invasion in Gaza would be "tough" on the Israelis because the enemy knows they're coming. 

"Any time the enemy knows that you’re coming and where you’re coming from, they’re able to set up and channelize your movement as much as they can through IEDs, through what we really saw in Iraq was the EFPs, which is an explosive penetrator… and they can make those left and right. They learned how to make those in Iraq from Iran, and the Iranian Republican Guard, and I’m sure that’s what they’ve done here as well. They’re going to have a tough fight on their hands," he said. 

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