Flights are scheduled to continue “on a rolling basis from Ben Gurion International Airport through at least Sunday, October 22. We will continue to monitor demand from U.S. citizens for assistance in departing Israel on a real-time basis,” he said.

So far, out of the 5,600 seats made available since the Biden administration began charter services by air and sea on Oct. 13, some 1,500 U.S. citizens and their families have used them, Patel said, reiterating that “the departure options we have offered have generally departed at half capacity or less.”

U.S. government-coordinated evacuations have restrictions, however, which could be impacting demand. For instance, evacuees are not allowed to bring their pets, and can only travel with immediate family members.

Domestic airlines have reported sagging demand, as well. Though U.S. airlines halted their commercial operations in and out of Israel when the conflict began, many increased flights from other regions to help bring Americans the rest of the way home.

Lisa Hanna, spokesperson for Delta Air Lines, said the airline added three flights from Athens on a plane that could carry 281 people last week. The first flight took 270 people, the second 112, and the last one, on Wednesday, took 73 people.

Though other airlines continue operating out of Tel Aviv, domestic carriers aren’t planning to resume service until next month at the earliest. The reduced capacity has bothered both Republicans and Democrats, who have said the current options aren’t enough to get Americans out of harm’s way.

An evacuation coordinator assisting non-governmental organizations in ongoing rescue efforts, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the evolving situation, said capacity has been adequate to help Americans who want to leave Israel, but not for those trapped in Gaza. The coordinator said an estimated 500 to 600 U.S. citizens residing in the Gaza Strip can’t leave due to Israel’s blockade and Egypt’s reluctance to let Palestinians in at the Rafah crossing, which remains closed.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday that the administration is aware of the situation and is in touch with the Egyptian government.

“We are telling [Egypt] that we have an interest in getting American citizens out,” Miller said during a press briefing. “We will be trying to get out the American citizens who are in Gaza who want to leave.”

Patel on Wednesday said U.S. citizens in each location — Israel, Gaza and the West Bank — in need of assistance should complete the crisis intake form, and the State Department will continue to provide updates on the latest departure measures as they become available.

Meanwhile, some aviation unions have pressed the Biden administration to call up the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, a Defense Department program that uses commercial aircraft to perform airlift services.

But a former senior U.S. Air Force officer involved in planning and executing global airlift operations, granted anonymity to speak about the process by which the government initiates that program, said the threshold for mobilizing usually involves a rapidly deteriorating situation which calls for a major effort to save lives or distribute critical supplies.

“It’s just not needed at this time,” the officer said. He compared it with the last time the commercial fleet was activated to help evacuate people just before U.S. armed forces pulled out of Afghanistan.

“We had days to move 125,000 or so individuals out of there” before the Taliban locked everything down, the officer said.

For Israel, “interagency groups and the State Department, they are monitoring the situation and supporting the people … they know what the requirement is to move people. So I would say [charter flights are] probably the best course of action right now.”