Counter-Terror Bureau warns of terror threat in Sinai

Intel agencies have "concrete information" on plans by terrorists to kidnap Israeli nationals during upcoming Passover holiday.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Sinai311 (photo credit: Steve Linde)
Sinai311
(photo credit: Steve Linde)
The Israeli Counter-Terror Bureau urged Israelis on Saturday to leave the Sinai Peninsula immediately, after revealing that Israeli intelligence agencies had obtained concrete information of plans by terrorists to kidnap or attack Israeli nationals vacationing there over the upcoming Pessah holiday.
The bureau said that some terrorists were already in the Sinai.
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Early Saturday morning, in the southern town of Khan Yunis, IAF aircraft bombed a car carrying four senior Hamas operatives who, according to Israel, were on their way to Sinai with plans to kidnap or attack Israelis vacationing on the peninsula.
Three operatives were killed in the strike; the fourth was seriously wounded.
The Izzadin Kassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, confirmed that the men killed were its operatives and warned that the air strike was a “serious escalation” for which Israel would “bear all the consequences.”
Two of the killed were reportedly brothers Ismail and Abdullah Lubad. The third was identified as Muhammad Aldiya.
The Counter-Terror Bureau regularly issues warnings against traveling to Sinai in the runup to Jewish holidays.
Defense officials said there was particular concern ahead of Pessah, later in April, with the current instability in the country following the recent revolution.
Hamas has in the past used Sinai as a launch pad for rocket attacks against Israel.
Israel is also concerned about reports of the Egyptian police abandoning Sinai in the face of growing Beduin violence and the territory turning into a breeding ground for Global Jihad. The Counter-Terror Bureau noted Saturday that the terror cell planning the attacks against Israelis in Sinai was using local Beduin to help carry out the attacks.