Israel: Thousands rush home

2004-10-08 10:30

Eilat - Thousands of frightened Israeli tourists were rushing back home from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Friday.

Officials say 26 people were killed in the attacks on a hotel in the Egyptian resort of Taba and two other resorts on the Red Sea coast of the Sinai peninsula.

Twenty four bodies were pulled from rubble at Taba's Hilton hotel while two other people were reported killed in Ras Soltan, near Nuweiba, the sources said.

Estimates of the number of dead varied through the night as rescuers combed the rubble of the hotel searching for survivors and bodies after the attacks, which came just a day after the 31st anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

Ignored warnings

At least 19 people were killed and more than 120 wounded in the blasts at the Taba Hilton, a luxury hotel just south of the Israeli border, and at the Ras Shitan resort of beach huts.

Many Israeli tourists complained bitterly about the Egyptian authorities who they said prevented tourists from leaving their hotels after the blasts and delayed them at the border.

Yitzhak Chai, the manager of the Israeli side of the border crossing, said about 6 000 Israelis crossed back home on Friday, and that he believed another 6 000 Israeli tourists were still in the Sinai.

Thousands of Israelis had been spending the weeklong Jewish holiday of Sukkot in the Sinai, despite warnings by the Israeli government a month ago that there was a high probability of a terror attack on Israeli tourists in the area.

Charly Bonen flew to Eilat early on Friday to meet his 24-year-old daughter who was on her way back from the Sinai. "I warned her, I'm not ashamed to say it I begged her not to go," he said, but she insisted.

Heinz Metler, 54, and his family made their way to Taba at daybreak. He said the Egyptian authorities were unhelpful. "They did absolutely nothing. At the border, we were delayed," he said.

'Travesty'

Udi Natan, 29, who also stayed at a resort south of Taba, said there was an Egyptian roadblock outside his hotel, and Egyptian police tried to prevent Israeli tourists from leaving. Natan said he simply walked through the checkpoint and hitched a ride with an Israeli motorist heading north.

Shimon Romah, an Israeli fire chief, said rescue workers lost precious time because they were unable to bring heavy equipment to Taba for several hours.

"This was just a travesty, because these were four critical hours," Romah told Israel Radio.

Firefighters and medics were allowed to cross Taba on foot.

- AP