After warning, hundreds of Israelis flee Sinai

[oberliner]

JERUSALEM — Hundreds of Israeli travelers returned home after Israel warned its citizens to urgently leave Egypt's Sinai Peninsula because of a kidnapping alert, police said Wednesday.

In the unusually strong wording late Tuesday, Israel's anti-terror office called on all Israelis in Sinai "to leave immediately and return home," and cited "concrete evidence of an expected terrorist attempt to kidnap Israelis in Sinai." The director of the office suggested that militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip were involved in the alleged kidnap plot.

The peninsula, within driving distance of Israel, was once an extremely popular vacation destination for Israelis because of its inexpensive seaside resorts, nestled at the foot of desert mountains.

A string of deadly suicide bombings in 2004 at several vacation spots popular with Israelis — including the Taba Hilton Hotel just across the Israeli border — has led many Israelis to shun the Sinai, though the area still remains relatively popular.

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