Egyptians Dependent on Israeli Tourism Worry About Future

If you ask Omda Mohammed Mattar, people who live in this barren desert can’t afford to get tangled up in politics: They make their living from Israeli tourists.

Mattar, who manages a beachside cluster of tourist huts called Maagana, was sitting around with about 150 Israeli guests Thursday evening when he heard an explosion rip through the nearby campground of Moon Island.

Within hours, blasts had torn through two other resorts, in nearby Taba and Nuweiba. It wasn’t long before the Israeli tourists began a mass evacuation from the Sinai Peninsula.

“They left with tears in their eyes. They even hugged us,” said a melancholy Mattar, 47. “They never faced this here in Egypt before. They liked the place and thought it was safe.”

Now the Egyptians have been left to wonder who carried out the attacks and worry about their futures in deserted tourist sites.

“The people’s loyalty is to tourism -- their source of income -- not politics,” Mattar said Friday, lounging against pillows in the center of the nearly empty campground.

Around him, a few remaining Israeli visitors crouched on the ground, eating picnic lunches. “What happened was a catastrophe,” he said. “What a black day.”

The identity of the bombers remained a mystery. Egyptian authorities rounded up dozens of Bedouins for questioning Saturday. Some of the detainees reportedly were being interrogated about the origin of the explosives.

In Taba, rescue workers continued to dig through the rubble of the Hilton Hotel, but hope of finding more survivors was fading. At least 33 people were killed in the blasts.

Senior Israeli officials have said they believe a group affiliated with or inspired by the Al Qaeda terrorist network was responsible for the attacks. Israel’s counter-terrorism chief, Dan Arditi, told Israel Radio on Saturday that other scenarios remained under investigation, including the possible participation of Palestinian militant groups.

Egyptian officials said it was too early to name suspects.

Until last week, the atmosphere in the Sinai desert was an exception to the generally embittered relations between Israel and the Arab world. Despite the animosity that has grown among many Egyptians toward the Jewish state -- especially since the outbreak of the intifada, or Palestinian uprising, more than four years ago -- Israelis continued to flock to the Sinai for vacations.

Tourism first flourished in the Sinai when it came under Israeli control in the 1967 Middle East War. After Israel relinquished the territory in exchange for peace with Egypt in 1979, the peninsula evolved into one of the few spots where both peoples could escape their nations’ politics.

“As a shop owner, I sell and buy. I need the tourist, and the tourist needs me,” said Ebada Mohammed, a 50-year-old supermarket owner in Nuweiba. “I can’t go and hit a tourist. I wouldn’t be able to eat.”

His 22-year-old nephew, Ahmed, nodded in agreement. The younger man, who lives in a village east of the Nile Delta, spends his summers and holidays in the Sinai, earning a little extra money by helping his uncle run the shop.

“There are many workers who will be harmed by these attacks,” he said. “It will destroy their incomes and hurt their families.”

The first years of the intifada were painful for the people of the Sinai who depend on Israeli travelers for their income. Business declined. Mohammed’s friends began to close their stores, or sell them.

But as the intifada stretched to two years, then three, the tourists started coming back to Egypt, and business picked up.

Mohammed said he was shocked when he heard about the attacks.

“This never happened,” he said. “This place is so safe here. This should never happen again.”

A few Israelis stayed put, determined to finish their beachside vacations.

But they predicted that few would be back anytime soon.

“I know most Israelis won’t come to Egypt these coming few years,” said Neil, a recent university graduate who didn’t give his last name. “They have families, and they are scared something might happen to them here.”

Times staff writer Laura King in Jerusalem contributed to this report.