This article may be excessively based on contemporary reporting.(March 2024) |
Sinai bus crash | |
---|---|
Details | |
Date | August 2006 |
Country | Egypt |
Statistics | |
Deaths | 12 |
The Sinai bus crash was a bus accident in the Sinai Peninsula in August 2006 which left twelve Israeli tourists dead. The tourists, who were Israeli Arabs, were riding a chartered bus as part of a convoy of eight buses carrying Arab tourists. The bus overturned and landed upside down between Nuweiba and Taba. The survivors claimed the driver intentionally crashed the bus and the incident was a terrorist attack. [1]
Israel sent 40 ambulances from Magen David Adom with emergency crews to assist the casualties, but Egyptian security forces at the Taba Border Crossing held them up, while Egyptian rescue forces only arrived after an hour, with European tourists helping to rescue the wounded. The Egyptians evacuated the passengers who sustained severe injuries to hospitals in Nuweiba and Sharm el-Sheikh, while those who sustained lighter injuries were taken to the Taba border terminal and received by Magen David Adom personnel at the scene. [1] Egyptian authorities delayed the passage of victims who wanted to cross into Israel via Taba, and made it difficult for those being treated in Egyptian hospitals to transfer to Israel for treatment. The delay in medical attention is blamed for at least one death. Those hospitalized in Egypt also alleged poor treatment in Egyptian hospitals. Israeli Air Force helicopters later airlifted some of the victims being treated in Egypt to Israeli hospitals. [2] [3]
In the aftermath of the attack, the Eilat Police set up an emergency command post in the city, where some of the injured were evacuated to for treatment, a team from the Israeli Embassy in Cairo visited the site, and the Israeli Interior Ministry issued a temporary order allowing all Israelis in the Sinai to return to Israel even without a passport.
The Egyptian driver was convicted of negligence by an Egyptian court and sentenced to one year in prison. Egyptian authorities were accused of deliberately handing down a lenient sentence and treating the victims' families in a deplorable way. The mayor of the local council of Kafr Manda, where three of the dead came from, said Egypt treated them badly because they were Israeli citizens.
Based on evidence amassed since the crash, the survivors maintain that the attack was premeditated. They believe that the initial plan was to kill Jews, but that the terrorist cell decided not to abort the plan even when they discovered that the passengers were Arabs.
According to one of the survivors, a newlywed whose wife was killed in the crash, "The entire ride the driver was very nervous. The driver said to us: you got Jewish education, you are the trash of the Jews and that we are traitors. When we asked him to turn on the air conditioning, he refused, saying 'soon you will all be very cold'. After the bus overturned, he walked out, stepped into a car that was waiting for him, and disappeared."
The victims submitted compensation claims to Israel’s Terror Victim Fund on the basis of these charges, but they claimed that for political convenience, the two governments classified the tragedy as an accident, a ruling disputed legally. [4]
Taba is an Egyptian town near the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. Taba is the location of Egypt's busiest border crossing with neighboring Eilat, Israel. It is the northernmost resort of Egypt's Red Sea Riviera.
Sharm El Sheikh, alternatively rendered Sharm el-Sheikh, Sharm el Sheikh, or Sharm El-Sheikh, is an Egyptian city on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula, in South Sinai Governorate, on the coastal strip along the Red Sea. Its population is approximately 13,000 as of 2023. Sharm El Sheikh is the administrative hub of Egypt's South Sinai Governorate, which includes the smaller coastal towns of Dahab and Nuweiba as well as the mountainous interior, St. Catherine and Mount Sinai. It was historically a fishing town and military base, and was developed into a commercial and tourist-centric city in 1968 by Israel. Today, the city and holiday resort is a significant centre for tourism in Egypt, while also attracting many international conferences and diplomatic meetings.
South Sinai Governorate is the least populated governorate of Egypt. It is located in the east of the country, encompassing the southern half of the Sinai Peninsula. Saint Catherine's Monastery, an Eastern Orthodox Church monastery and UNESCO World Heritage Site of world renown, is located in the central part of the governorate.
The 2005 Sharm El Sheikh bombings were committed by Islamist group Abdullah Azzam Brigades on 23 July 2005 in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Eighty-eight people were killed by the three bombings, the majority of them Egyptians, and over 200 were injured, making the attack the deadliest terrorist action in the history of Egypt, until it was surpassed by the 2017 Sinai mosque attack.
The 2004 Sinai bombings were three bomb attacks targeting tourist hotels in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, on 7 October 2004. The attacks left 34 people dead and 171 injured.
Eden Natan-Zada was an Israeli deserter soldier who opened fire in a bus in Shefa-Amr in northern Israel on 4 August 2005, killing four Arab citizens of Israel and wounding twelve others. He was restrained, disarmed and cuffed when he tried to reload to prepare for another round of shooting. After he was restrained and handcuffed, he was beaten to death by the crowd, as recorded on video. It has been inferred that the shooting was a personal protest against the Israeli government's disengagement plan, since an orange ribbon was found attached to Natan-Zada's pocket.
The Dahab bombings of 24 April 2006 were three bomb attacks on the Egyptian resort city of Dahab, in the Sinai Peninsula. The resort town is popular with Western tourists and Egyptians alike during the holiday season.
Egyptian National Railways is the national railway of Egypt and managed by the parastatal Egyptian Railway Authority.
The Ras Burqa massacre was a mass shooting on 5 October 1985 on Israeli vacationers in Ras Burqa, a beach resort area in the Sinai peninsula, in which seven people, including four children, were killed by Egyptian soldier Suleiman Khater.
Terrorism in Egypt in the 20th and 21st centuries has targeted the Egyptian government officials, Egyptian police and Egyptian army members, tourists, Sufi Mosques and the Christian minority. Many attacks have been linked to Islamic extremism, and terrorism increased in the 1990s when the Islamist movement al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya targeted high-level political leaders and killed hundreds – including civilians – in its pursuit of implementing traditional Sharia law in Egypt.
The Taba Border Crossing, also known in Israel as the Menachem Begin Crossing, is an international border crossing between Taba, in Egypt, and Eilat, in Israel. The Taba Border Crossing is the southernmost point in Israel.
Israeli casualties of war, in addition to those of Israel's nine major wars, include 9,745 soldiers and security forces personnel killed in "miscellaneous engagements and terrorist attacks", which includes security forces members killed during military operations, by fighting crime, natural disasters, diseases, traffic or labor accidents and disabled veterans whose disabilities contributed to their deaths. Between 1948 and 1997, 20,093 Israeli soldiers were killed in combat, 75,000 Israelis were wounded, and nearly 100,000 Israelis were considered disabled army veterans. On the other hand, in 2010 Yom Hazikaron, Israel honored the memory of 22,684 Israeli soldiers and pre-Israeli Palestinian Jews killed since 1860 in the line of duty for the independence, preservation and protection of the nation, and 3,971 civilian terror victims. The memorial roll, in addition to IDF members deceased, also include fallen members of the Shin Bet security service, the Mossad intelligence service, the Israel Police, the Border Police, the Israel Prisons Service, other Israeli security forces, the pre-state Jewish underground, and the Jewish Brigade and the Jewish Legion.
The 2008 Israeli tour bus crash was a road accident in southern Israel on 16 December 2008 in which a coach carrying Russian tour operators left the road and plunged into a ravine, killing 25. It is the deadliest traffic accident in Israel's history.
Rocket attacks on the neighboring cities of Eilat, in Israel, and Aqaba, in Jordan, have been a tactic used by militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and organizations linked with Al-Qaeda because of the relative ease of launching rocket attacks against these two cities from adjacent desert areas. Most of these attacks target Eilat, the last attack on Aqaba was in 2010.
On August 18, 2011, a series of cross-border attacks with parallel attacks and mutual cover was carried out in southern Israel on Highway 12 near the Egyptian border by a squad of presumably twelve militants in four groups. The attacks occurred after Israel's interior security service Shin Bet had warned of an attack by militants in the region and Israeli troops had been stationed in the area. The militants first opened fire at an Egged No. 392 bus as it was traveling on Highway 12 in the Negev near Eilat. Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In a third attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians. Eight Israelis – six civilians, one Yamam special unit police sniper and one Golani Brigade soldier—were killed in the multiple-stage attack. The Israel Defense Forces reported eight attackers killed, and Egyptian security forces reported killing another two.
The 2012 Burgas bus bombing was a terrorist attack carried out by a suicide bomber on a passenger bus transporting Israeli tourists at the Burgas Airport in Burgas, Bulgaria, on 18 July 2012. The bus was carrying 42 Israelis, mainly youths, from the airport to their hotels, after arriving on a flight from Tel Aviv. The explosion killed the Bulgarian bus driver and five Israelis and injured 32 Israelis, resulting in international condemnation of the bombing.
Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, or Ansar Al-Quds, was a jihadist, extremist terrorist group based in Sinai from 2011 to 2014.
The 2014 Taba bus bombing was a terrorist attack on a tourist coach in Taba, Egypt on 16 February 2014. The bus had been parked, waiting to cross into Israel at the Taba Border Crossing, when a lone suicide bomber entered the open bus and detonated his explosives. Four people – three South Koreans and the Egyptian bus driver were killed, and 17 others injured.
Terrorism and tourism in Egypt is when terrorist attacks are specifically aimed at Egypt's tourists. These attacks often end in fatalities and injuries and have an immediate and sometimes lasting effect on the industry. Attacks take many forms; blowing up an airplane carrying tourists, drive-by shootings of tourists, knife attacks on tourists and suicide bombings in a location where tourists are congregated. On the timeline of these events, the 1997 Luxor Massacre stands out - 62 tourists were ambushed and killed.
Events in the year 2023 in Egypt.