Israelis Warned To Leave Egypt's Sinai Region

[Nicholas]

_http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Israel-Tells-Its-Citizens-To-Leave-Egypts-Sinai-Peninsula-AMid-Fears-Of-A-Kidnap-PLot/Article/201004215601019?f=rss

Adam Arnold, Sky News Online
Israel has issued an "urgent" warning to its citizens to leave Egypt's Sinai Peninsula immediately over kidnap fears.

The Israeli prime minister's anti-terror office said there was "concrete evidence" of an expected terror attempt to seize Israelis in the region.

In an unusually strong statement, it said "all Israelis residing in Sinai" should leave now and return home.

It also called on families of Israelis touring Sinai to contact the office.

It has a standard travel advisory telling Israelis to stay out of the Sinai desert because of the threat of terror attacks.

However, thousands of Israelis routinely ignore the warning and go on holiday in the desert and along its Red Sea coast.

Egyptian security officials said about 35,000 Israelis are in the Sinai now, and they expected thousands more to arrive later this month.

Sky's Middle East correspondent Dominic Waghorn said: "Sinai is a popular tourist destination for Israelis, particularly young Israelis.

"Nearly all of them are in the army and therefore soldiers and therefore targets for groups like Hamas who have been known to operate in the Sinai."

He added: "Hamas have been trying for a number of months and years to kidnap another Israeli soldier.

"They already have Gilad Shalit. They have been holding him in Gaza. He was kidnapped in southern Israel, but the border between Israel and Egypt and Gaza and Egypt is relatively porous.

"If Hamas can get its operatives into Sinai and they are able to kidnap an Israeli soldier, then they will be able to smuggle him back into Gaza through the tunnels out of Sinai."

Waghorn said the new warning was a "step up" from the ones the Israeli authorities have been issuing recently.

In 2004, suicide bombers attacked Egypt's Taba Hilton Hotel, just across the Israeli border, and several campsites where Israelis are known to stay on holiday.

Dozens of people were killed and hundreds wounded.

Israel controlled the Sinai from its capture in the 1967 war until returning it to Egypt in 1982 in the framework of a peace treaty between the two nations.

 

[Keit]

_http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Israel-Tells-Its-Citizens-To-Leave-Egypts-Sinai-Peninsula-AMid-Fears-Of-A-Kidnap-PLot/Article/201004215601019?f=rss

It has a standard travel advisory telling Israelis to stay out of the Sinai desert because of the threat of terror attacks.

However, thousands of Israelis routinely ignore the warning and go on holiday in the desert and along its Red Sea coast.

Egyptian security officials said about 35,000 Israelis are in the Sinai now, and they expected thousands more to arrive later this month.

If Israel issued an urgent warning to its citizens to leave Sinai, it means that tourist season is officially open! :D

Seriously, there are usually at least two warnings like this a year, especially for Sinai. As this article mentions, most of Israelis who go there ignore it because they know that most of the time nothing happens. Well, most of the time, when Shin Bet's plan is just to maintain the usual scare level of its already paranoid and brainwashed citizens.

But, of course, such announcements sometimes come also as a preparation for a staged operation, where Shin Bet victoriously either capture Hamas terrorists, or rarely, will "allow" Hamas to capture soldier or two, and then justify another attack on Gaza. And that maybe the real reason for this "terrorist" warning in Sinai, since lately Israel have been really eager to start another operation in Gaza. Take this article for example, where they mention that Palestinian attacks from Gaza doubled in March. Now, they just need a good excuse to start Gazan blood bath all over. Not sure that the world will be that patient this time, though.

Here is a quote from the above mentioned link:

JERUSALEM — Israel has reported a dramatic increase in Palestinian insurgency strikes.

The Israel Security Agency said Palestinian attacks more than doubled in March 2010 from the previous month. ISA reported 125 attacks in March — many of them missile strikes — compared to 53 in February.

"The causes for the increase in the number of attacks are growing tension in both Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, namely the increase in rocket launchings towards Israel," ISA said on April 11.

 

[1984]

Thanks, Nicolas. This story was posted earlier on SOTT here.