Lethal Explosion at Hilton Hotel fileld with Israelis on Egypt-Israel Border

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Explosion at Hilton hotel filled with Israelis near Egypt-Israeli border
By SARAH EL DEEB
BC-Egypt-Explosion, 3rd Ld-Writethru,0526
Explosion at Hilton hotel filled with Israelis near Egypt-Israeli border

Eds: LEADS throughout with time of explosion, Israeli newspaper saying blast took place in lobby and quoting Israeli security sources as saying there is growing conviction that it was a terrorist attack

AP Photos pursuing

By SARAH EL DEEB

Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- A strong explosion shook the Hilton hotel in Egypt's Taba resort, only yards from the Israeli border, as many Israelis were vacationing Thursday night at the close of a Jewish holiday.

Egyptian security officials said there were "a large number of wounded," and Israeli medics had ambulances standing by at the border after being informed of "a large number of casualties."

"The whole front of the hotel has collapsed. There are dozens of people on the floor, lots of blood. It is very tense," witness Yigal Vakni told Israel's Army Radio. "I am standing outside of the hotel, the whole thing is burning and they have nothing to put it out with."

The Egyptian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the 10 p.m. explosion took place among gas tanks in the kitchen of the hotel, which is next to the casino where many tourists were at the time of the blast. They said they had no initial indications that the blast was a result of terrorism.

However, the Haaretz newspaper in Israel said the blast took place in the lobby of the hotel, causing the ceiling to collapse, followed by a fire and the evacuation of guests on upper floors through the emergency exits. The newspaper quoted Israeli security sources as saying there is a growing conviction that the explosion was caused by a terrorist attack.

The explosion came about a month after the Israeli government urged citizens not to visit Egypt, citing a "concrete" terror threat to tourists in an area. The warning, issued on Sept. 9 by the counterterrorism center in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, identified Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where Taba is located, as the target of a potential attack.

"Recently a concrete possibility has emerged that terrorists will try to attack tourist centers in Egypt, especially the Sinai," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on its Web site.

The explosion could be heard and felt strongly a mile from the hotel, said Selma Abu el-Dahab, who works at another Taba hotel. She said a worker from her hotel returned from the Hilton and told of the explosion before collapsing.

Taba is the main crossing between Israel and Egypt and the gateway for thousands of Israelis who travel to the hotels and resorts on the Red Sea. Thursday is the last day of the weeklong Jewish festival of Sukkot, when thousands of Israelis vacation in the Sinai.

Vakni said most of the people at the Hilton were Israeli.

"I was in the casino when it happened," he said. "There was a massive explosion, and the left wall came down. People started to run around like crazy."

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

2 more Egyptian resort towns now hit.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Clearly it's Saddam's doing. STAY THE COURSE IN IRAQ!

(More seriously: yeesh.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

oh man

― kephm, Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Apparently the Taba hotel is quite a favorite tourist spot for Israelis.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"Coordinated terror strike" now suspected.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Who's likely to be blamed for this, I wonder? Coordinated blasts suggest an Al Qaeda attack...

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

It does? (I'm not being flippant.)

Initial death toll 23.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Why would it suggest Al-Queda more than Hamas?

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

It can't be a terror attack, because so-called "terror" groups like Hamas don't hate Jews, they're just against certain Israeli policies. Therefore they couldn't possibly have carried out an attack on foreign soil that specifically targeted Jewish people.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Who's likely to be blamed for this, I wonder? Coordinated blasts suggest an Al Qaeda attack...

Hamas' name is being bandied about the most, but this is also Zawahiri's neck of the woods.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 7 October 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Barry - I'm not sure whose position do you think you're lampooning there. They're a terrorist group. Of course they're prepared to do things like this, even if it wasn't them this time. They wouldn't even need to be anti-semitic to do so - just terrorists.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 8 October 2004 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I disagree Nick. An attack on Israel can be explained as an attack on Israeli policy. An attack that specifically targets Jews outside of Israel is anti-semitism.

Suppose somebody bombed Chinatown in ______ (pick your major North American city). And they tried to pass it off as a political statement against Chinese human rights offenses. Or suppose they bombed Little Italy in ______ (city) and claimed it was for Berlusconi's mismanagement when he was EU prez (I have no bone to pick with anybody, these are just two examples off the top of my head). What is the difference between these hypothetical situations and today's terrorist attack?

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 05:47 (twenty-one years ago)

who are you mad at exactly, barry?

Hamas did warn that in response to the Israel attack in Damascus, they would expand their targets. Maybe this is what's happening here.

― Symplistic (shmuel), Friday, 8 October 2004 06:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, I'm someone who's easily offended by stupid statements (from either side) about I/P issues, but I find the ILXers that talk about it remarkably sane and balanced.

― Symplistic (shmuel), Friday, 8 October 2004 07:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Terrorists bomb in an attempt to attain power through spreading terror. These were Israelis on holiday - why does it matter whether they were at home or abroad?

You seem to be seeing the action as a 'wipe out Jews' genocidal step. I don't see terrorism like that. The people concerned may well be anti-Semitic, of course, but I don't see how this action in itself is evidence of it.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 8 October 2004 07:15 (twenty-one years ago)

What is the difference between these hypothetical situations and today's terrorist attack?

well, there's one obvious one. the people killed today were mostly citizens of the country the attackers have a bone to pick with, while in your examples they would be American citizens with an ethnic background in the country the hypothetical attackers don't like.

this doesn't make killing civilians any less wrong, obv.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 8 October 2004 09:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe it's a bit like the Indonesia nightclub – 1. kill lots of Australians; 2. try to intimidate Indonesia into being less "west"-looking. So in this case it's Israelis and Egypt instead. Egypt has a fairly good relationship with Israel compared to Israel's other neighbours and is not as hardcore-Islamist as (e.g.) al-Qaeda would like.

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 8 October 2004 10:06 (twenty-one years ago)

by the way:
Bombing at Indonesian Embassy in Paris this morning ...

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 8 October 2004 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

who are you mad at exactly, barry?
I'm not mad about anything written on this thread. Sorry if it appeared as though I was.
The idea that "the terrorists have no issue with Jews, their issue is with Israel" is ludicrous. Attacks such as these make that clear. Hamas' admission that they would not stop firing rockets into Israel after the Gaza make that clear. This was the basis of my comment. But don't take my word for it, go read the Hamas charter and they'll tell you all about the sins of the Jews and why it's a Muslim's duty to kill any Jew they see.
Maybe it's a bit like the Indonesia nightclub – 1. kill lots of Australians; 2. try to intimidate Indonesia into being less "west"-looking.
Exactly. Those actions were undoubtedly fueled by racism.

while in your examples they would be American citizens with an ethnic background in the country the hypothetical attackers don't like.
Says who? Who's to say how close their ties are to their native country? They could be recent immigrants. Or have dual citizenship. DV, your comment suggests that somehow a racism-fueled attack on people of a certain ethnicity is on a different moral standing if it's not carried out in the country of their ethnic origin. I think that's wholeheartedly wrong.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

The idea that "the terrorists have no issue with Jews, their issue is with Israel" is ludicrous.
And I try to make this point as politely as possible when it is appropriate. This is one of those times, hence, my commenting on this thread at all.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

DV, your comment suggests that somehow a racism-fueled attack on people of a certain ethnicity is on a different moral standing if it's not carried out in the country of their ethnic origin.

nyeh - nothing about moral standing from I. And neither the Taba attack or your examples took place in country of ethnic origin, so I don't know what you are on about.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

???
I said that was no moral difference between a racist attack in their country of origin and one in another counrty.
You claimed there is a difference. I disagreed.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, I'm someone who's easily offended by stupid statements (from either side) about I/P issues, but I find the ILXers that talk about it remarkably sane and balanced.

I'd say about as sane and balanced as the U.N. towards the conflict.

― bnw (bnw), Friday, 8 October 2004 15:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I said that was no moral difference between a racist attack in their country of origin and one in another counrty.
You claimed there is a difference. I disagreed.

I said there was a difference, not a moral difference.

― loggedoutDV, Friday, 8 October 2004 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

And what exactly is that difference, beyond the obvious fact that the attacks take place in a different country?

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Barry, what's your problem? people are being killed in the Middle East, but all you seem to care about is point scoring in pointless debates about nothing.

― loggedoutDV, Friday, 8 October 2004 16:46 (twenty-one years ago)

now that's just mean, bnw

― Symplistic (shmuel), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

obv hamas et al. are anti-semitic, but that's not what makes them bad, exactly. what makes them bad is that they try to kill large amounts of innocent people.

― Symplistic (shmuel), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:20 (twenty-one years ago)

but all you seem to care about is point scoring in pointless debates about nothing.
I'd say that establishing that terror groups such as Hamas (who many people consider to be a legitimate political organization) are in fact motivated by racist hatred of Jews rather than political concerns is not a "pointless debate about nothing".

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i think they are motivated by both racism and political concerns

― Symplistic (shmuel), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I think their racism motivates their politics to a far larger extent than vice versa. You don't see Hezbollah trying to drive the Syrians from Lebanese land. You didn't have the PLO trying to drive the Jordanians from Palestinian land pre-1967. You don't have Hamas objecting to the treatment of black Muslims at the hands of Arab Muslims in Sudan.

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:50 (twenty-one years ago)

did the PLO exist pre-'67?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

okay just found the answer, founded in 1964. Not a lot of time to drive the Jordanians out, perhaps.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Has it been determined yet what sort of explosives were used? It seems Hamas uses homemade rockets/bombs almost exclusively anymore, I doubt they have the capacity to create an explosion of this force.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 8 October 2004 17:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Stence, look through the PLO charter sometime ... Jordanian occupation isn't mentioned. Jerusalem isn't mentioned either.

(xpost -- the group claiming responsibility is a new group that I believe was unknown before this attack)

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Friday, 8 October 2004 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

would it be expected for Arabs to renounce other Arabs during what was probably the historic height of the pan-Arabist movement/sentiment?

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 8 October 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

okay interesting, I googled the charter:

Article 1: Palestine is the homeland of the Arab Palestinian people; it is an indivisible part of the Arab homeland, and the Palestinian people are an integral part of the Arab nation.

If they're "an integral part of the Arab nation," it would make sense that they would not renounce or attack other Arabs.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 8 October 2004 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

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