Israel warns of high terror risk in Sharm el-Sheikh

Citizens urged to return home and cancel trips to Red Sea resorts because of ‘serious’ threat to tourists

ISRAEL has warned its citizens to immediately leave Sharm el-Sheikh and Egypt’s other Red Sea resorts, saying there is an imminent threat of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) attack against tourists.

Several hundred Israelis are currently in the region but thousands more are expected to head to Egypt’s beaches during next month’s Passover holiday, the Israeli government said.

The country’s counter-terrorism bureau said: “There is a serious and current threat of terror attacks being carried out against tourists, notably Israelis, in the immediate future.”

It urged its citizens who were in the Sinai to immediately return home and warned anyone with plans to travel to the area to cancel them.

“We don’t want to cry wolf, we really believe that the threat is serious,” said Eitan Ben-David, the head of the counter-terror bureau.

Sharm el-Sheikh remains a popular destination for British tourists even though the UK Government halted direct flights to the resort in 2015 after a Russian passenger jet was bombed by Isil. While Israel has classified the entire Sinai region as a “Level One” area – meaning there is “a very high concrete threat” – the Foreign Office’s advice to British travellers is more nuanced.

It advises against any travel to northern Sinai, which has endured a raging Islamist insurgency against the Egyptian government, and all but essential travel to the southern Sinai. But it has not raised the threat level inside Sharm el-Sheikh, warning instead of the dangers of air travel to or from the resort.

Israel’s government said it did not have “specific warnings” of a particular plot but judged that the overall danger of an attack was high.

Isil’s Egyptian affiliate, known as Sinai Province, has grown increasingly brazen in recent months. Its members are believed to be responsible for a coordinated killing campaign against Coptic Christians in the Sinai, where Islamist gunmen have worked their way through a list of Christian targets.

This month it briefly set up a checkpoint in the city of Arish in a display of force designed to show its ability to defy Egypt’s security forces. Ten Egyptian soldiers were killed last week by a pair of roadside bombs in Sinai.

While Israeli tourists are always a prime target for jihadist attacks, the Israeli government believes they may be especially in the cross hairs because of reports that Israel has carried out drone strikes against Isil in the Sinai.

Israel also warned against travel to Turkey. “As long as Islamic State is in distress, it will try to carry out attacks around the world — against the Christians, the Crusaders and maybe the Jews,” Mr Ben-David said.