"They are trying to put out the fire and save people who are still trapped in the ruins of the hotel," he told Israel's Channel 10 television. "The firefighters are climbing up through the hotel, floor by floor, to save the people inside."
Gideon Meir, a senior official in Israel's Foreign Ministry, said that in conversations with the Egyptian government, Israel had requested that Egypt permit free passage across the border for Israeli citizens and rescue personnel without passports, clearance for Israeli helicopters to fly to the scene of the attacks and permission for as many as 30 buses to travel down the coast to pick up any Israelis who wanted to leave. The Egyptians responded that they would do "their utmost" to help, he said.
Emergency personnel outside Yoseftal Hospital in Elat, Israel, assist a victim of one of three explosions on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula near the Israeli border.
(Israeli Television Image Via AP)
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The Israel Defense Forces later took control of the scene at Taba. A military convoy including seven ambulances and three buses went to the site in Nuweiba.
Last month, before the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory warning Israeli tourists not to travel to the Sinai Peninsula because of possible terrorist attacks. But officials said they believed that between 12,000 and 15,000 Israeli tourists were in the Sinai on Thursday.
Israeli officials said they had no concrete information about who was behind the strikes. But one senior government official noted the similarities between Thursday's attacks and previous attacks by al Qaeda. He cited in particular the multiple simultaneous strikes in other countries.
"It looks like al Qaeda," he said. "The characteristics of this attack are the same as Bali, Kenya, or even Madrid."
No established groups have asserted responsibility for the bombing, but two previously unknown Islamic groups each said they carried it out. There was no way to confirm the authenticity of the claims.
Elat is one of Israel's most popular resorts, located at the very southern tip of the country where Israel, Egypt and Jordan converge at the end of a small finger of the Red Sea. Joseftal Hospital there was inundated with wounded, said Naomi Halevy, a spokeswoman.
"More people are coming in every minute," she said in a telephone interview. "It's a total mess." Hospital officials reported receiving 112 injured.
There were few reliable reports about the other blasts. Assaf Levy, a tourist who was staying at the Castle Beach Hotel in Ras Shytan, said he was relaxing with friends when suddenly a missile was fired from the long, high mountain range that runs along much of the coast.
"There was fire, a huge explosion, and we all ran outside," he told Israel's Channel 2. "Two minutes later we saw another missile that fell in the parking lot of the Castle Beach. Some people even ran towards the water and got into the sea because they were afraid of the missiles."
Aya Reich, 28, a lawyer from Tel Aviv, said she was dining with about 10 friends at a small beach community called Moon Island when "suddenly there was a strong explosion about 30 meters away from us, and everyone flew, and then a minute later there was another explosion, and we all started running towards the water."
"People were falling on top of each other," said Reich, who was wounded in the foot by shrapnel. "Everyone was hysterical."
Special correspondent Samuel Sockol in Elat and researcher Hillary Claussen contributed to this report.
