page_title: Rocket attacks on Eilat and Aqaba
section_title: August 2, 2010
hierarchical_section_title: Rocket attacks on Eilat and Aqaba / Attacks / August 2, 2010
context_page_description: Rocket attacks on the neighboring cities of Eilat, in Israel, and Aqaba, in Jordan, have been a tactic used by militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and organizations linked with Al-Qaeda because of the relative ease of launching rocket attacks against these two cities from adjacent desert areas. Most of these attacks target Eilat, the last attack on Aqaba was in 2010.
context_section_description: The attack took place in the early morning. The projectiles were Iranian-made 122 mm Grad rockets, each weighing 6 kilograms (13 lb) and with ranges of approximately 20 kilometers (12 mi).
  Two rockets fell in front of the InterContinental hotel in Aqaba. Five Jordanian men traveling in a taxi nearby were wounded, one seriously. The driver, Subhi Yousef Alawneh, died from his injuries later the same day. The road was damaged and two vehicles were destroyed, though the hotel itself escaped harm.
  Three rockets fell on the city of Eilat, one in a drainage pool in the northern part of the city, causing no reported injuries or damage.
  One rocket fell near an Egyptian security installation near Taba, and another fell into the Red Sea.
  Source and perpetrators
  On 4 August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his country had intelligence confirming that Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist militant group and de facto governing authority in the Gaza Strip, was responsible for the attack. He said the group was also responsible for a similar attack in April of that year (see below).   It is believed that the rockets were cached in the Sinai and that the perpetrators were affiliated with Hamas and came from Gaza.
  Egypt initially denied that the rockets had been launched from Egyptian territory, but reversed its position following investigations, stating that the rockets were fired simultaneously from the Taba region. Egyptian security sources implied that the rockets were launched by Hamas, stating that Hamas militants had snuck into Sinai through the Rafah tunnels to hide the fact that the group was behind the operation. Egyptian establishment media charged that Hamas was working "on the orders of their Iranian masters", and strongly attacked both Hamas and Iran for harming Egypt, claiming that Egypt would take revenge on the Palestinian group.
  Palestinian Authority security officials said that the commander of Hamas' military wing in Rafah, Raed al Atar, was responsible for ordering the attack. Intelligence sources said that a number of militants under his control crossed into Sinai through the Rafah tunnels, where they were met by Egyptian drivers and the rockets. They then proceeded in off-road vehicles to Taba, avoiding security checks by the Egyptians.
  Hamas and Islamic Jihad denied any link with the attacks. An anonymous Jordanian political source assessed that the attack was perpetrated by Tawhid al-Jihad, a radical Muslim group which opposes Hamas and collaborates with Sinai Bedouin who are at odds with the Egyptian authorities.
  The September 2010 arrest in Egypt of Mohammed Dababash, the Hamas intelligence chief in Gaza, is thought to be linked to the August 2010 attacks.
  Responses
  The Jordanian government condemned the rocket firings as a "terror attack."
  Israeli President Shimon Peres said the attack appeared to be aimed at disrupting the possible resumption of direct peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships for the first time in over 18 months. "There is a real struggle in the Middle East between the peace camp of moderate countries and the camp of extremists, who want to sabotage any chance of peace," Peres said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made similar comments, telling Jordan's King Abdullah and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the attack telling "was committed by terror agents who want to thwart the peace process". "All states in the region that aspire towards peace should fight these powers, push terror away and bring peace closer," he added.
  In mid-September 2010, the United States State Department issued a travel advisory warning to American citizens advising them not to travel to Aqaba based on concrete information about planned terrorist rocket attacks similar to the previous incidents. The department lifted that warning on Sept. 27.
  Political ramifications
  In the wake of the attack, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism accused the United States State Department of issuing a biased travel advisory, "singling out Eilat but not Aqaba, despite the fact that the rockets'
caption: Al 'Aqabah (Aqaba) shown within Jordan. Eilat lies nearby at the southern tip of Israel, and the Gulf of Aqaba as well as the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula are also shown.
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