US Women’s Basketball Player Stuck in Israel During Iran Conflict Remains Optimistic She’ll Return Home Soon
Destiny Littleton, right. Photo: IMAGO/Fotostand via Reuters Connect
Professional women’s basketball player Destiny Littleton has been posting on social media in real-time while being trapped in Israel, as Iran launches missile strikes on the Jewish state in response to the US-Israel strikes on Tehran over the weekend.
The former NCAA and Team USA player – who won a gold medal for the US in the 2017 FIBA 3×3 U-18 World Cup —moved to Israel in November to play for Hapoel Jerusalem in the top women’s basketball division. Since the joint US-Israel strikes in Iran that started on Saturday, and amid Iran’s counterstrikes against Israel, the 26-year-old has been trying to return home to the United States.
“There have been exits routes opening up so I don’t doubt that one of my next videos will be me having a plan to leave Isreal [sic],” she wrote in the caption of a video posted on Instagram early Tuesday morning.
“With that being said if and when such plan arises I will NOT be posting in real time as my safety is the number 1 priority,” she added. “Please keep me and everyone else in your prayers … The goal has always been the same to remain safe and find the best way out and back home.”
In the video, she shared, “options have been opening up for us to take … We are coming very close to making a move to get out of Israel.”
On Monday, the US State Department urged Americans in several countries across the Middle East to depart as soon as possible using all available commercial transportation, citing “serious safety risks” from the war with Iran. That same day President Donald Trump said the war could last a month or longer.
“Whatever it takes,” he noted. “Right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that.”
Over the weekend, Littleton posted a video on Instagram of her and others in shock and fear as drones flew over their apartment building, while explosions were heard in the background. In several other videos, she recorded herself going to a bomb shelter while sirens blared around her.
On Sunday, an Iranian missile struck the city of Beit Shemesh, which is west of Jerusalem and just 30 minutes away from Littleton, she said in an Instagram post. The missile killed nine people and injured many others.
“I think I’m so clam [sic] because I’m in so much fear. Body is in flight or fight mode,” she wrote on Sunday, in the caption of a video posted on Instagram.
Littleton is one of three former South Carolina women’s basketball players competing in Israel who have been stuck in the country since the conflict started over the weekend. She is stranded in Israel along with former WNBA player Tiffany Mitchell and former Phoenix Mercury forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan. South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said Saturday on X that she is working to bring all three athletes back to the US.
Littleton talked to Fox News about her experience living in a war zone while trying to get back home.
“It’s scary. And it’s hard not to take it to the ‘what ifs.’ You really can’t. We’re going to have to pray and hope everything will be okay and that we can leave safely,” she said. “Right now, I can’t tell you the full effect that this is going to have on me. But I do know that just with this 48+ hours of being in an active war zone, even the little noises you jump at. So, there is going to be some trauma there.”
Littleton also shared her feeling about the US and Israel joining forces to strike Iran. “The US is trying to stop a regime that’s terrible for the entire world; on the other hand, it’s the US is doing Israel’s bidding,” she said. “My opinion is that I’m against the war period. I’m against what war can do. And I don’t like how [Trump] made this decision on his own.”