After rocket scare, Eilat makes quick rebound to sea and sun

Tourists in Eilat returned to their normal schedule of sunbathing, swimming, shopping and partying Tuesday, less than a day after an intercepted rocket briefly rattled the Red Sea resort town.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Tuesday that residents and tourists in the southern city should not change their routines, even as security forces upped preparedness, fearing more Grad missiles fired from the nearby Sinai Peninsula.

The rocket fired late Monday was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system and caused no damage. Three people were treated by paramedics for shock.

Hotels reported that there was no mass cancellation or exodus of tourists Tuesday.

“I walk around the city, and it has completely returned to its routine,” Mayor Meir Yitzhak Halevi told Channel 2 on Tuesday morning. “Everything here is operating as normal.”

Halevi acknowledged that the city is on higher-than-usual alert. “The Home Front Command and the IDF…update us on a regular basis,” said Halevi. “We gave clear instructions to residents and tourists that they listen to media reports.”

Zohar Cohen, from Beersheba, a city that has received a great deal of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in recent years, told Channel 2 that he and his family were used to life interrupted by rocket fire.

“I took my child from the crib and we went into the hallway. We heard the explosions and I understood that Iron Dome was intercepting,” he said.

Cohen said that other tourists were not taking the rocket attack too seriously, nor did they feel any less safe.

Assaf Eliyahu of Kfar Yonah told Israel Hayom that “we went back to normal very quickly and were not afraid. Whatever needs to happen will happen.”

Eilat District Police Superintendent Sami Marciano said that Monday night’s rocket attack did not force any events in the city to be canceled.

“There is extensive (military) deployment in the city with large forces,” said Marciano. “Life here is continuing as always — alongside all security measures. IDF forces are spread out and prepared for any escalation.”

Palestinian sources reported early morning Tuesday that a Muslim terror group operating in the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip took responsibility for the attack. Majlis Shura Al-Majahedin Fi Aknaf Bayt Al-Maqdis is the same al-Qaeda-linked group that was targeted on Friday by what was reported to be an Israeli drone, killing four and destroying a rocket launcher in the Sinai.

The strike on Friday came on the heels of a warning from Egyptian security officials, who reportedly conveyed to Israel that jihadists in the Sinai were planning imminent attacks against Israeli targets.

Meanwhile, clashes between terrorists and Egyptian security forces continued within the peninsula. Gunmen shot up several military outposts in El-Arish overnight, opening fire with rockets and small arms. There were no injuries reported.

Ya’alon said the heightened security in Eilat was due to an assessment that there could be more rockets.

“Our working assumption has been that there is terrorism in Sinai that can certainly try to hit us again… this is the reason that we deployed Iron Dome.”

The defense minister emphasized that while Israel is carefully watching the developments in Sinai, “we completely respect the Egyptian sovereignty” beyond the border. Even though the terror activities may also involve Israeli targets, the primary enemy of the “radical Islamic terrorists” is the Egyptian military and police.

He lauded Egyptian security forces, which are “working to clear out the nests of terrorism” in the northern Sinai.

However, Brig. Gen. (res.) Zvika Fogel, the former head of the IDF southern command, told Army Radio on Tuesday that “if the Egyptian authorities do not stop the terror organizations in the Sinai peninsula, Israel will be forced to take military action.”

He compared the terror groups in the south to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.

“If we don’t go and deal with the problem that exists in Sinai now, we will have to deal with it the same as we did in southern Lebanon — and the success (there) was not much to talk about,” he said, referring to Israel’s years-long engagement with Hezbollah and other terror elements on the northern border.

Yoel Goldman contributed to this report.