Free Republic

The Israeli intelligence blog Debka File reports that pro-Iranian Houthi troops have taken over control of the strategic straits (Bab el-Mandeb) at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. This choke point threatens all commercial and military maritime traffic from the oil rich nations bound for the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean. "Control of the Red Sea Bab el-Mandeb Straits passed Tuesday, March 31 to pro-Iranian Yemeni forces when the Yemeni Army’s 117th Brigade loyal to the former Yemeni President Ali Saleh handed positions guarding the waterway to two Houthi commando battalions trained by Iranian Revolutionary Guards. This is revealed...

Israel Is Planning an ‘Inland Suez Canal’ Across Its Desert. At What Cost? Israel's planned high-speed train to Eilat: dream or potential environmental train wreck? In theory, it sounds amazing: a high-speed train to Eilat, the country’s southernmost city on the shores of the Red Sea. This was attested to by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his recent Knesset speech enumerating the new government’s goals, in which he described it as a major national project: “The mission is to develop the country’s infrastructures, including developing a high-speed rail that will travel hundreds of kilometers per hour and connect the country...

The Jewish state’s dream of warm peace with its Arab neighbors has eluded it for more than 72 years. In September 2020, President Donald Trump helped engineer the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. The very treaty signing on the White House lawn projected human warmth, and signaled a warm peace. Subsequently, Sudan and Morocco joined the normalization of relations with Israel. It is true that peace, as opposed to war, came much earlier than September 2020. Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994. These peace treaties, however,...

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel’s Environment Minister said Thursday a clandestine oil deal that would have turned a scuba divers’ paradise into a waypoint for Emirati oil headed for Western markets has effectively been blocked.... ...The secret deal would have significantly increased the number of oil tankers docking and unloading in the Israeli resort city of Eilat. It was struck last year between the Europe-Asia Pipeline Company, the Israeli government-owned corporation, and MED-RED Land Bridge, a joint Israeli-Emirati venture, following the historic agreement establishing formal diplomatic ties... ...Senior officials in former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government — including his...

INS Eilat - Wikimedia commons creation CAIRO – 29 May 2018: Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi decreed issuing a commemorative Golden Jubilee medal for the Egyptian naval forces on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the sinking of Israeli Eilat destroyer. The medal will be awarded to all members of the naval forces in service until October 21, 2017. The presidential decree no. 236/2018 was published in the Gazette. Eilat, built in 1944, was originally serving in the British Royal Navy under the name of HMS ZEALOUS during the Second World War, participating in operations in the North Sea...

TEL AVIV – A news agency known for its close ties to the Islamic State claimed that Israeli aircraft on Tuesday struck outposts of Wilayat Sinai, the IS’s branch in the Egyptian Sinai. With no documentary evidence to back up its claim, the Amaq News Agency reported that seven “Israeli drones, war-planes and helicopters” bombed targets in the IS-heavy north-eastern Sinai. Contacted by Brietbart Jerusalem, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment, explaining it is the IDF’s general policy to refrain from commenting on reports of operations outside the boundaries of Israel and the Gaza Strip. IS...

Egyptian troops battle ISIS in Sinai The statements coming from different Israeli spokesmen this week were not just at dangerous variance with the actual events but with one another, when it came to Egypt’s massive confrontation this week with ISIS close to Israel’s border, a fresh round of Palestinian West Bank anti-Israel terror and the ambivalent role played by Hamas extremists in all these events. Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai said in an Al Jazeera interview Thursday, July 2, that Israel had “clear evidence” of Hamas aiding the offensive the Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate...

Transportation minister orders that Uvda airport near Eilat be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport beginning noon local time. Transportation Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday instructed the relevant agencies to immediately open the Uvda airport, the country's second terminus for air traffic which lies just north of Eilat, in the wake of the spate of flight cancellations announced by major foreign airlines. Katz convened a meeting of senior civilian aviation officials who recommended that the Uvda airport be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport. Related: • US urges deferral of travel to Israel, increases first aid to Gaza • El Al says...

The Israeli government Sunday authorized 1,500 more Jordanians to come and work in its Red Sea resort of Eilat to combat a labor shortage, the tourism ministry said. The Jordanians would enter Israel to work and go back across the border to Jordan at night once their shift was finished, the ministry said in a statement. “I am persuaded that this decision will reinforce peace between Israel and Jordan, and help reduce high unemployment in southern Jordan,” it quoted Tourism Minister Uzi Landau as saying.

The continued threat of economic boycotts targeting Israel hasn’t deterred China from forging ahead with a new freight rail link through Israel. The planned link could provide an alternative to the Suez Canal. The project would connect the 300-plus kilometers between Eilat on the Red Sea and Ashdod Port on the Mediterranean. And it could be the chance for China to gain a foothold in the region. …

For those who have never been to Mitzpe Ramon, you’re missing out. It’s on the edge of the Ramon makhtesh -- Israel’s Grand Canyon. In fact, although it is called a “crater” in English, it is actually a “makhtesh” i.e., a “box canyon”, formed not by a meteor or a river, but by geological processes of a receding ocean. It is the world’s largest “makhtesh”! ... In any event, no one listened, but everyone had a lot of fun. My friend Hershel Shanks who moderated my session chided me for being too confident. He wanted me to have an appropriate...

El Al Airlines will no longer fly to Eilat because of safety concerns over new flight paths. The airline said Tuesday that it was canceling its night flights to Eilat. Two months ago, El Al said it was halting its daytime flights to the southern resort city. The decision on the night flights will go into effect in two weeks, when the routes changed for daytime hours will go into effect for nighttime hours as well. "The Civil Aviation Authority announced that it is changing the route of night flights as of Nov. 18 to a route which El Al...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli military shot down a rocket launched toward a Red Sea resort town near the border with Egypt on Tuesday, the army said. It was the first time Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system successfully intercepted a rocket attack on the resort of Eilat, the military said. The incident came after days of heightened tension along the Egypt-Israel border. The army said the rocket was intercepted early Tuesday and that there were no injuries. It didn't provide more details and declined to comment on the origins of the projectile. An al-Qaida-inspired militant group based in Egypt's...

A security assessment led to the immediate shutdown of the southern airport. The IDF ordered the immediate shutdown of the airport at Eilat Thursday to all arriving and departing flights, following an unspecified security assessment. The assessment is most likely linked to terrorist activity in the Sinai desert, which borders on the southern port city. Takeoffs of flights headed north were initially allowed to take place but were also stopped later in the evening. The IDF will open the airfield at Uvda as an alternate landing spot for flights diverted from Eilat. The Egyptian military has been conducting a large...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's military says it has ordered the closure of the airport in the Red Sea resort of Eilat. An official in the military spokesman's office said Thursday that the military has instructed the airport to cancel all landings and departures until further notice. She says the decision was made as a result of a security assessment, but did not elaborate. She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with briefing regulations.

(Reuters) - Two rockets fired from Egypt's Sinai peninsula struck Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat on Wednesday, causing no casualties or damage, the Israeli military said, in an attack claimed by Islamist militants. The incident was likely to fuel Israeli concerns about lawlessness in neighboring Sinai, where militant groups have stepped up their activities since Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's downfall in 2011. An Israeli military spokeswoman said two rockets were launched from Sinai and both hit open areas. Egypt's military said it formed a "technical committee of specialists" to examine whether the attack was carried out from Egyptian territory....

A Grad rocket has landed in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, but has caused no damage or injuries, Israeli security officials said. District police chief Ron Gertner told Israeli radio the rocket had been fired from Egypt's Sinai peninsula. He said it struck a construction site close to a residential area shortly after midnight (21:00 GMT). The blast took place as thousands congregated in the resort town for the Jewish holiday of Passover. Rocket attacks from Egyptian soil are uncommon. Attacks on Eilat and the nearby Jordanian town of Aqaba in 2010 killed one person and injured another four....

Egyptian officials on Thursday denied that three Grad rockets which struck the city of Eilat in the pre-dawn hours were fired from the Sinai desert. Mahamoud El-Hefnawy, Cairo's director of security for the Sinai sector, told Egyptian media that the rockets fired at Eilat did not emanate from Sinai. Hefnawy said that "the situation in the southern sector is excellent. There are regular patrols and stakeouts across all roads. If anyone seems suspect they are stopped for inspections meant to stop any terrorist elements from entering the area." He claimed that Egyptian border patrols are constantly present across the sector...

The IDF's Southern Command is establishing a new regional brigade that will operate as part of the Edom army group. The IDF website explained that the Eilat Regiment "was born as a result of tension along the border with Egypt, that rose following the toppling of the government in Egypt and intensified after the terror attack on Route 12 in August." Eight Israelis died in the combined attack by terrorists who reached the Eilat border area by traveling from Gaza through the Sinai. The new brigade will operate in the Eilat area and along part of the Israel-Egypt border. It...

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) has filed a parliamentary query in which he asks Defense Minister Ehud Barak why the IDF is ignoring testimony about Egyptian soldiers' involvement in the murderous terror attacks near Eilat. Several civilian eyewitnesses have said in press interviews that Egyptian soldiers were involved in the attacks. They said that they saw people in military fatigues shooting at them from within the Egyptian military positions, or right next to them. "I would like to know why the IDF has refrained from questioning the civilians," the former IDF Chief Medical Officer wrote, "and whether it is possible...