Israel tells citizens to leave Egypt and Jordan as soon as possible, avoid Morocco
National Security Council says other countries to be avoided include UAE and the Maldives; highlights global jihad rhetoric ‘calling to harm Israelis and Jews around the world’
Israel issued a warning against travel to Egypt, Jordan and Morocco on Saturday, citing fears that Israeli travelers will be targets of those angry at the ongoing war sparked by October 7’s deadly Hamas onslaught on Israel.
The announcement from the National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry said it was raising the alert for Egypt (including the Sinai Peninsula) and Jordan to a 4, and calling on all Israelis in the country to leave as soon as possible.
For Morocco, the threat level was raised to a 3, and Israelis were told to avoid non-essential travel.
“Given the ongoing war, we are witnessing a significant increase in anti-Israel protests in the past few days in countries around the world, and in particular, Arab countries in the Middle East,” the announcement read.
“Hostility and violence have been displayed against Jewish and Israeli symbols. The rhetoric of global jihad has become more extreme, which is calling to harm Israelis and Jews around the world,” the NSC said.
The announcement says it is additionally recommended to avoid staying in all Middle Eastern or Arab countries, including Turkey, Egypt (including Sinai), Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Additionally, the warning recommended avoiding travel to countries such as Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Maldives.
Two Israeli tourists were killed by an Egyptian policeman in an attack last week, and there have been widespread pro-Palestinian protests across the world.
On Tuesday, the National Security Council called on all Israelis in Turkey to leave “as soon as possible.”
On Wednesday, the Israeli consulate in Istanbul said it was for their own safety given the growing terrorist threats against Israelis abroad.
Israel arranged evacuation flights to repatriate citizens from Turkey, while issuing a travel warning of the highest threat level to the country.
On Thursday, it was reported that Israel has recalled its diplomats from Turkey as a security precaution, with the Jewish state having already advised citizens to leave.
“It’s a temporary measure, which should be for the short term,” said the source, who refused to be quoted by name.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has joined many Arab countries in blaming Israel, straining diplomatic relations. Turkey’s foreign ministry also condemned “these barbaric attacks in the strongest terms,” in a statement issued shortly after the explosion.
Turkey maintains ties with Hamas, the terror group that slaughtered some 1,400 Israelis in an unprecedented assault from Gaza on October 7, plunging the region into war.
Some 2,500 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea that morning, rampaging across southern Israel, and seizing 200-250 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.
The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — men, women, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists, in what Biden has highlighted as “the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says over 4,100 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the Hamas onslaught. The figures issued by the terror group cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include its own fighters and the victims of a blast at a Gaza City hospital on October 17 caused by an Islamic Jihad missile misfire that Hamas has blamed on Israel.
Israel says its offensive is aimed at destroying Hamas’s infrastructure, and has vowed to eliminate the entire terror group, which rules the Strip. It says it is targeting all areas where Hamas operates, while seeking to minimize civilian casualties.
AFP contributed to this report.