When the U.S. ignited a war with Iran last weekend, the State Department advised Americans to depart now from several countries in the region.

But airspace closures left thousands of Americans suddenly stranded.

Over the last five days, nearly 24,000 U.S. citizens have safely returned to the United States from the Middle East.

This week, we spoke with some of the Americans who were stranded overseas.

My name is Iman Abbas.

I'm originally Egyptian, but I was born and raised in California.

The last nine and a half years, I've lived here in Dubai.

There's not really been an easy way out for residents like us. My name is

Folling West, and I'm from Lehigh, Utah. My husband and I were in Jerusalem, and we were ready

to go home, and the war broke out. We got back to Salt Lake yesterday. My name is Matt Gentile. I'm from

Rochester, New York, and I was in the Kurdistan region in Iraq when the war started. I just got

back like two hours ago. My name is John Almeida. I'm here with my wife, Susanna Almeida. We're still in Dubai.

We got here about 10 days ago.

We were one day away from catching a flight back.

And the days prior to that, this was probably the most amazing vacation we've ever had.

Then next thing you know, the war breaks out.

And there were missiles that were being intercepted right overhead, like from my bedroom window,

and it was like a cloud of smoke.

The 28th was probably the scariest day I think we've all ever had in our lives.

The missile that fell near the Fairmont Hotel was less than a kilometer away from where we were staying.

It was surreal to be standing on the beach and hearing these noises and the ground shaking.

Our hotel had a bomb shelter, so we actually went down there.

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