Free Republic

In the wake of recent reports of a joint Israeli-Jordanian plan to link the Red Sea on the Israeli side and the Dead Sea on the Jordanian Side, parliamentarians in Egypt are agitating for the nation's caretaker junta to demand Israel surrender the port-city of Eilat. Egypt has insisted it has a claim to the city of Eilat since it lost the city to the nascent state of Israel in the wake of the Egyptian army's defeat in Israel's 1948 War of Independence, but after the 1979 Camp David Accords the claim was officially dropped. Or so it seemed. The...

A survivor of the attacks Thursday near Eilat feigned death for an hour after she and her husband were hit by terrorist gunfire. Her husband was killed. Yosef and Esther Levy of Holon were driving on Highway 12 when they were ambushed by terrorists with guns and bomb belts. The terrorists sprayed the car with fire, hitting both passengers and causing the vehicle to overturn. “There was blood on the floor, and I heard my husband moaning,” Esther later told Yediot Aharonot. “I saw that his shirt was covered in blood.” Esther was hit in the shoulder and suffered additional...

The IDF attacked terror targets in Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, in response to a three-stage terrorist attack which killed seven Israelis and wounded dozens in the South earlier in the day. Five Palestinians were killed in the joint IDF and Shin Bet strike. Among those killed was the chief of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), Kamal al-Nairab. The four others that were killed were also members of the terrorist faction . Security sources said that the PRC was behind Thursday's triple attack near Eilat. They added that the operatives had crossed from the Gaza Strip into Egypt...

Israel has accused the United States of bias and rewarding terrorism after the State Department urged Americans visiting Eilat to exercise caution following a rocket attack on the Red Sea resort. Israel's tourism ministry on Sunday said it was angered because the State Department had not issued a separate advisory warning of similar dangers in the nearby Jordanian city of Aqaba. Suspected Islamist militants last week fired five rockets on Eilat, Israel's only city on the Red Sea, one of which went astray and killed a Jordanian national in Aqaba, which lies on the other side of the bay. There...

SNIPPET: "Police are working to figure out the origin of the rocket that was fired from the Gaza Strip Saturday evening and exploded near Kibbutz Nahal Oz, without causing damage or injures. A total of four rockets and two mortar shells were fired at Israel on Saturday, causing no injuries. An initial examination revealed that the rocket fired at Nahal Oz was manufactured using professional means, most likely outside of the borders of the Gaza Strip. The rocket had a diameter of 115 millimeters, and police sappers were working to locate fragments of it to be tested."

At least four people are reportedly injured after a series of rockets were fired at the southern Israeli town of Eilat. A series of explosions were heard in and around the resort town in far southern Israel near the borders with Jordan and Egypt. Israeli media say five rockets were fired at the city by militant groups either in Jordan or the Sinai Desert. The attacks come three days after militants in Gaza fired a Katyusha rocket at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, and a more crude rocket into the Negev Desert. In retaliation Israeli forces on Saturday bombed two...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

An IDF Navy Dolphin-class submarine that participated in maneuvers off the Eilat coast last week returned to Israel via the Suez Canal on Sunday according to witnesses' reports. However, an Israeli defense official told Reuters there would be no permanent deployment in Eilat of the German-made submarines, of which the Navy has three, with two more on order. "If anything, we are scaling down our naval operations in Eilat," the official was quoted as saying on Sunday. A senior naval source explained that the "submarines need the open water, and that's just not available at Eilat." "Also, the navy cannot...

An Israeli bus full of newly arrived Russian tourists veered off a desert road and plunged down a ravine on Tuesday, killing at least 24 people and seriously injuring about a dozen more. The crash, in the desert north of the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat, was one of the worst Israeli road accidents for years. Soldiers, police and rescue workers rushed to the scene and army helicopters helped evacuate dozens of injured survivors. "I saw people flying out of the windows as the bus rolled down the slope," said one driver who witnessed the crash. Eilat, at Israel's...

Eilat Israel, Palestine Economy Hit By Terrorism By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency Jerusalem ---- January 29, 2007..... For years, Eilat, a beautiful, charming tourist port city in Israel's south, has not known terrorism. Eilat was never a part of the Palestine Israel equation. The Palestinians never associated Eilat with Gaza or the West Bank. Until today. A lone Palestinian terrorist blew himself up this morning in a bakery in Eilat. The attack murdered three people - the two young bakery owners and an employee. The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades and Islamic Jihad terror groups claimed responsibility for today’s suicide...

In their mourning tent, Saqsaq family fails to express any sorrow. 'We knew he was waiting for this moment. He wanted to be shahid, and earned it,' brother tells Ynet. He explains that his brother tried to send message to Palestinian factions to fight against Israel, not against one another Ali Waked Published: 01.29.07, 20:22 "The whole family was very happy when it heard that Muhammad is the hero who carried out the attack," said Naim Saqsaq, the brother of Muhammad Saqsaq, who carried out the suicide attack in Eilat that killed three people. "We knew that he was waiting...

Defense establishment suspects suicide bomber entered Israel from Egypt through breached border, with possible aid from an Egyptian youth. Sources warn terrorists using calm to rearm in Gaza Ronny Sofer Published: 01.29.07, 19:43 Suicide bomber Faisal al-Sarsaq who committed Monday morning's terror attack in Eilat entered through the breached Israel-Egypt border, defense establishment believes. Leaving Gaza for Egypt and then entering Israel from northern Sinai through one of the common smuggling routes along the border is how the bomber was suspected to arrive in Eilat. Ties between the bomber and a young man from Alexandria, Egypt, who was arrested by...

Three people killed as suicide bomber blows himself up in Eilat shopping center, as police search for culprits who drove bomber to scene of attack Meir Ohayon Published: 01.29.07, 10:28 Three people were killed and two others were critically wounded Monday morning in an suicide bombing attack that rocked a shopping area located in Eilat's Izidor neighborhood. Police confirmed that a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bakery in the neighborhood that was bustling with shoppers at the time, dispelling earlier reports that the blast was caused by a gas cylinder. Shattered glass was visible on the sidewalk outside,...

Three missiles have been fired from the Jordanian port of Aqaba, missing a US Navy ship but hitting Israel. Two rockets missed the USS Ashland, an American naval ship docked in the port. A Jordanian soldier died when one of the two missiles hit the dockside. The third missile landed near Eilat airport in neighbouring Israel, causing no injuries. An internet statement, purportedly from a group which says it has links to al-Qaeda, said it was to blame. The statement, allegedly from the Abdullah al-Azzam Brigades, said the attacks were the group's first attack in Jordan and were aimed at...

"Alla knows, if we could get chemical weapons, we would use them against Israeli cities like Eilat and Tel Aviv", said a high ranking al Qaeda member in a video cassette broadcast on an Arab television station and uploaded on Moslem websites on the Internet. He made these statements in response to reports that Jordanian security forces had averted a chemical attack that al Qaeda planned to carry out in that country. He admitted that the organization planned to carry out an attack, but that it was not chemical. "Yes, we planned to destroy the building which houses Jordanian intelligence",...

A senior security source told The Jerusalem Post that the attack on Wednesday morning at the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing terminal which killed Monica Patricia Teran Norte, 33, of Ecuador and wounded four others, has the markings of an Al-Qaida strike. Al Qaida is increasing its activity in Arab countries perceived to be pro-western - such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan - the source said, aiming to punish these state for leaning towards the West in a time of Jihad. Hitting tourists is also a well-established Al-Qaida tactic, he noted. He also doubted that the attacks were engineered by...

Mar. 4, 2003 New $220m. Eilat airport approved By TAL MUSCAL The Southern District Planning Committee has approved the building of Eilat s new airport, expected to cost $220 million, the Airports Authority said on Tuesday. The airport will be constructed 19 kilometers north of the town, near Timna. Nestled in the heart of Eilat, the current airport will cease operations and be converted for commercial use, once the new facility is open. A target date for completion has yet to be given. In light of the approval, and green light given by the Eilat Municipality, Eilot Local Council, the...

Palestinian terrorists planned to fire rockets from Jordan at hotels in Eilat. The Jordanian army reportedly captured four Palestinian terrorists two weeks ago, armed with two Katyusha rockets and six mortars. According to the Jordanians, the terrorists planned to fire the rockets at hotels and fuel storage tanks in Eilat, Israel's southern port city. According to the report, published today in Yediot Aharonot, Jordan trackers discovered the terror cell close to Jordan's border with Israel, some 30 kilometers north of Akaba. The chief of staff of Jordan's army gave orders to send an elite paratrooper unit to the border area,...