BICOM

The civilian airport in the popular southern Israeli resort city of Eilat was closed to air traffic for two hours yesterday evening following an unspecified security threat, thought to be linked to the unrest in Egypt’s adjacent Sinai Peninsula.

The order to close the airport was given at around 7pm local time and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz instructed operations to resume some two hours later. In the interim, air traffic had been re-routed the nearby Ovda airport in the Negev. No details were disclosed over exactly why such action was taken, with the IDF releasing a statement which simply said, “Civilian airports are managed in coordination with the Israel Air Force and Israel Airports Authority, in accordance with security assessments.”

However, yesterday’s closure comes at a time of increasing tension and violence in the neighbouring Sinai Peninsula, which borders both Israel and the Gaza Strip. Since the ouster of Mohammed Morsi from power in Egypt last month, Sinai has been plagued by violence. In a series of incidents, Islamist groups have attacked Egyptian security positions. In a bid to restore order, Egypt’s military has deployed significant forces in Sinai, with Israel’s permission, as required by the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace agreement. This week, a spokesman for the Egyptian Army, Ahmed Ali said that over the past month Egyptian forces had apprehended 103 armed Islamists, killed sixty and closed 102 smuggling tunnels between Sinai and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, which are thought to be a rich source of weaponry and manpower.

Eilat has previously been the target of Islamist violence from Sinai, with two Grad rockets fired at the city in April, causing no injuries or damage. The Salafist organization Majlis Shura al-Mujahideen in Sinai took responsibility for the strike. Last month, Israel deployed the Iron Dome missile defence system in Eilat in order to combat any potential rocket threat.