- The surge of violence in the Middle East spilled across
Israel's southern border into Egypt last night as more than 30 holidaymakers
were killed and scores more injured in a devastating series of apparently
coordinated car bomb attacks in Red Sea resorts.
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- Israeli security officials said they believed a car bomb
was responsible for a huge blast that ripped through the Hilton hotel in
Taba, a resort town in Sinai just yards from the border which is popular
with young Israeli holidaymakers.
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- Witnesses said people were still trapped under the burning
wreckage of the 10-storey hotel last night, at least part of which collapsed
in the explosion.
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- Ambulances and rescue crews streamed across the border
from the nearby Israeli town of Eilat.
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- Extra medical and rescue teams and stocks of blood were
flown to the southern town.
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- "The whole front of the hotel has collapsed,"
one witness, Yigal Vakni, told Israel's Army Radio. "There are dozens
of people on the floor, lots of blood. It is very tense. I am standing
outside the hotel, the whole thing is burning and they have nothing to
put it out with."
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- Later, two other blasts shook the resorts of Nueiba and
Ras al-Sultan, south-west of Taba. At least one Egyptian was killed in
Ras al-Sultan, with as many as 42 injured in the two attacks. Israeli officials
said 30 were killed at Taba and at least 100 injured. Dozens of the wounded
filed across the floodlit border last night to reach an Israeli hospital.
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- Two Britons were caught in the Hilton blast but the Foreign
Office said it was not thought they were seriously injured.
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- Taba is the gateway to dozens of resorts on the Red Sea
coast on the Sinai peninsula which are very popular with young Israelis,
and an estimated 10,000 are currently in the region for the Jewish holiday
of Sukkot.
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- Last night the Israeli foreign ministry began an operation
to evacuate all Israeli tourists from Sinai. Israel had warned last month
that citizens should not visit Egypt, citing a "concrete" terror
threat to tourists.
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- "Recently, a concrete possibility has emerged that
terrorists will try to attack tourist centres in Egypt, especially the
Sinai," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website. However,
Egyptian officials said they had no evidence of terrorism.
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- The Sinai peninsula was captured by Israel in the 1967
Six Day war and returned under a 1979 deal that resulted in a formal peace
deal between the two neighbours - one of the few deals that Israel has
with Arab states.
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- Sinai shares a border with the Gaza Strip, where more
than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the past 10 days in an Israeli
offensive designed to stop militants from firing rockets into southern
Israel. An adviser to Yasser Arafat denied Palestinians were behind the
Egyptian attacks.
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- The Bedouin inhabitants of the Sinai do not harbour the
same antipathy for Israel and Israelis as other Arabs. Some of the best
diving in the world can be found along the Sinai Red Sea coast.
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- Most holidaymakers go for beach holidays but other Israelis
go to use casinos which are illegal in Israel. The Taba Hilton, which was
built when Israel held the Sinai, incorporated a casino.
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- In Ras al-Sultan and Nueiba, tourists camp or stay in
beach huts. There are larger-scale resorts popular with Europeans in Sharm
al Sheik and Dahab.
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- The bombs threaten serious damage for the region's tourist
trade which relies on Israel for the bulk of its income.
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- The Egyptian government has often acted as an intermediary
between Israel and the Palestinians, who have often felt aggrieved that
Egypt appeared more as an emissary of the United States than an advocate
of their rights.
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- Egyptian officials have been playing a role in Ariel
Sharon's disengagement plan, offering to train Palestinian security forces
and increase security along the Gaza-Egypt border.
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- Israeli officials complained that Israeli rescue teams
were denied permission to cross into Egypt for up to an hour after the
blast.
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- Taba, a collection of several hotels, has no major rescue
services. Other rescue personnel were not allowed to cross into Egypt without
a passport, according to Israel media.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1322786,00.html
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