#israel #idf #jewish #egypt #palestine #gaza
Citing concrete intelligence, the National Security Council's Counter Terrorism Bureau (CBT) issued a critical travel advisory on Tuesday night urging all Israelis in the to immediately return home.
Intelligence obtained by shows that a terror cell is on its way to the to kidnap an Israeli citizen and transfer him or her to the Gaza Strip. Israeli intelligence agencies have updated their Egyptian counterparts. While officials refused to reveal the cell’s affiliation, they said that it was working on behalf of Hamas and wanted to use the Israeli as a bargaining chip.
According to a statement put out by the bureau, concrete intelligence information was obtained regarding an immediate terrorist plot to kidnap Israelis in Sinai.
The statement also calls on the families of Israelis presently in Sinai to phone them and inform them of the travel advisory.
During the Pessah holiday an estimated 5,000 people from Israel vacationed on Sinai beaches despite warnings not to do so, according to CBT estimations. The urgent language of the current advisory is extremely rare.
On Tuesday afternoon, rumors circulated regarding the possibility that an Israeli citizen, maybe a soldier, had been kidnapped by a Palestinian terror group in the Sinai. The IDF immediately ordered its units to count all of its soldiers and determine their whereabouts. By the evening, however, the reports were dismissed after it was verified that no one was missing.
According to a top defense official, the advisory was issued on Tuesday after concrete intelligence was obtained recently indicating that terrorist groups were planning to kidnap Israelis who are still vacationing along the Sinai beaches.
“This is a real threat based on intelligence that we just received,” the senior official told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday evening. “The plot is to kidnap any Israeli and it does not make a difference who they are.”
The last major terrorist attack in Sinai was in 2004, when suicide bombers attacked 's Taba Hilton Hotel, just across the Israeli border, and several campsites where Israelis were vacationing. Dozens of people were killed and hundreds others were wounded.
In addition to Hamas, Hizbullah is also believed to be interested in kidnapping an Israeli citizen as part of its plans to avenge the 2008 assassination of Imad Mughniyeh. Hizbullah has been unsuccessful so far in its efforts to strike back at , but has in the past made efforts to kidnap Israeli businessmen.
Israel Terror Warning Israel Terror Warning Israel Terror Warning Israel Terror Warning
No comments:
Post a Comment