Egyptian official: Kidnapped Israeli will soon be released

A senior Egyptian security official asserted Friday that Amir Omar Hassan, 26, an Israeli tourist kidnapped in the Sinai Peninsula, will be released from captivity within the next couple of hours, Channel 10 news reported.

The Egyptian police announced that they know the kidnappers’ identity and are doing everything they can to assure Hassan’s release.

“We are all here crossing our fingers for him. He contacted us and said that he was alive and well,” a friend of Hassan said.

According to Hassan’s family, Bedouin are holding him hostage until the Egyptian government releases two men, apparently drug dealers, who are currently imprisoned in Cairo.

Israeli officials confirmed earlier Friday that an Israeli and a female Norwegian friend had been kidnapped near the Taba crossing in the Sinai. According to the captive’s family, the 23-year-old Hassan said that he had crossed into the Peninsula with two female friends.

The tourists were reportedly grabbed by an armed Bedouin gang soon after they crossed from the Israeli to the Egyptian side of the border, en route to a local beach. The Israeli and his companions were traveling in a taxi, reported Channel 2 News.

According to Egyptian media reports, the gang pulled the foreigners from the taxi at gunpoint, and forced them into another car. The taxi driver was also kidnapped, but then released. It was the driver, an Egyptian Bedouin, who alerted the Egyptian authorities of the incident.

Hassan, a student from Nazareth, is a member of the country’s Arab minority.

Given the terror risks in the somewhat anarchic Sinai area, fewer Israeli Jews visit the area than in years past, and most of the Israeli tourists visiting there are Arabs. An official Israeli terror warning advises Israelis against going to the Sinai altogether.

The Foreign Ministry and other Israeli officials were staying in close contact with Egyptian authorities in an attempt to release the captives.

Arab MK Ahmad Tibi told Channel 2 News that the Israeli’s family had asked the legislator to contact the Egyptian authorities on their behalf. Tibi said he had done so, and that he was involved in negotiating the captives’ release. He said officials in Cairo were aware of the situation and added, “We’re working for a quick resolution of the incident.”

According to Tibi, the kidnappers did not target Israelis specifically.