TABA, Egypt — Media outlets across Israel echoed warnings Jan. 24 urging citizens vacationing in the Sinai to leave the peninsula immediately. Reports claimed that Israeli intelligence officials had unearthed a very high and concrete threat to Israeli nationals there and raised the risk of danger to the highest level. Less than an hour south of Eilat, however, on a beach near the town of Nuweiba, a group of Israeli youngsters continued chatting in Hebrew to their Bedouin hosts while relaxing at a camp on the stunning Sinai coast on the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba.
“It is my first time here in Sinai, but a lot of my friends have come here before,” said Aaron Avitsur, a 21-year-old from Jerusalem. “Everyone in Israel knows that Sinai has great beaches and allows a freer time than in Israel.”