It has been reported that Egypt turned down an offer of ships to help from Israel.
How typically bigoted and shortsighted and Arab.
I was stationed on the USS Saratoga during the first Gulf War. Around Christmas in 1991, we were in Haifa, Israel for liberty. On the first night of liberty, a ferry boat carrying a little over 100 of my shipmates, including my chief, got swamped in heavy seas and sank just a few hundred yards off the fantail. Twenty-two men died, including the chief who was sitting next to my chief on the ferry. He didn't remember a thing - he said that one minute they were in water up to their waists, and the next thing he knew he had somehow made it back to the surface.
The Israeli search and rescue teams were absolutely first rate - they had a helo up looking for survivors before we could launch one. They were a big reason why a lot more men didn't die that night. If the Egyptians turned down Israeli assistance, it's their loss. Of course, since they'll probably blame the Joooos for the sinking anyway, the higher the body count the better from their perspective.