Two Israeli tourists killed in road accident in Egypt's Sinai

Seven others injured and transferred to hospitals in Israel after minibus crash

A ferry boat anchors in the bay of Nuweibaa in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, near to where the latest fatal road accident took place. Alamy

Two Israeli tourists were killed and seven others injured when their minibus collided with a lorry in the southern region of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, police said.

The accident took place late on Tuesday on the coastal road between the port of Nuweibaa and the resort town of Dahab. Both are on the Red Sea’s Gulf of Aqaba.

Israeli emergency services said the injured were transported to hospitals in Israel and that none had suffered life-threatening injuries.

Thousands of lives are lost in road accidents every year in Egypt.

The state’s statistics agency says 7,101 people were killed in traffic accidents last year. Most of the accidents are blamed on speeding.

The resorts of southern Sinai — world famous for diving, golden beaches and pristine waters — are very popular with Israeli tourists, who can travel there by car and receive visas on arrival.

The Israel Airports Authority, which oversees the border crossing between Egypt and Israel at the town of Taba, says 1.4 million Israelis crossed into Sinai by car in 2019. This year, more than 330,000 Israeli tourists crossed into Egypt by early June.

Egypt became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1997. Under the accord, Israel handed back the Sinai Peninsula, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East War.

Egyptian authorities go to great lengths to protect Israeli tourists in southern Sinai, with police carrying out thorough searches and identity checks at numerous checkpoints on roads from the mainland or northern Sinai, home to a long-running, low-intensity insurgency by militants.