DUBAI: The Red Sea, renowned for its coral reefs and marine life, is a major hub for Egypt’s tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.
However, a recent series of boating incidents and shark attacks on tourists have raised concerns, with several fatalities reported over the years.
Attacks by militant groups on foreigners damaged tourism in Egypt in the past, with fewer arriving to see other attractions such as the Great Pyramids of Giza or take a Nile cruise in Luxor and Aswan.
BOATING INCIDENTS
“Sindbad” tourist submarine sinks
On March 27, 2025, a tourist submarine named “Sindbad” sank near the Red Sea resort of Hurghada, killing six Russian tourists. The vessel was carrying 50 people, including 45 tourists from Russia, India, Norway, and Sweden, along with five Egyptian crew members.
Authorities rescued 39 people and launched an investigation into the cause of the incident.
“Sea Story” yacht capsizes
On November 25, 2024, a tourist boat named “Sea Story” capsized off the Red Sea coast near Marsa Alam during a multi-day diving trip. Four people drowned. The vessel was carrying 31 tourists and 13 crew members when it was struck by high waves, and it sank within minutes. Thirty-three survivors were rescued with minor injuries and seven individuals remained missing as rescue operations continued.
“Hurricane” boat fire
On June 11, 2023, a fire consumed a motorboat named “Hurricane” near the diving resort of Marsa Shagra, north of Marsa Alam.
The vessel was carrying scuba divers on holiday, with 15 British tourists and 14 Egyptian crew and guides on board. Twelve tourists and all crew members were rescued, but three British tourists who were initially reported missing were later announced to have died.
Sinking of tourist boat
On August 20, 2015, 26 French tourists and 10 Egyptians were rescued after a boat transporting them hit coral reefs and sank off the Red Sea coast.
SHARK ATTACKS
Shark kills Italian tourist in waters off Marsa Alam resort
On December 29, 2024, an Italian tourist was killed and another injured in a shark attack at Marsa Alam resort. The incident occurred in deep water outside the designated swimming zone near the jetties.
Tiger shark kills Russian citizen near Hurghada beach
On June 9, 2023, a Russian citizen was fatally injured by a tiger shark near a beach at the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
Authorities then issued a ban on swimming, snorkelling and other water activities on several nearby beaches.
Shark attacks kill two women south of Hurghada
On July 3, 2022, two women were killed in separate shark attacks south of Hurghada. The victims, one Austrian and one Romanian, were attacked within 600 meters (2,000 feet) of each other near Sahl Hasheesh.
Shark kills German woman swimming in Sharm el-Sheikh On December 5, 2010, a 70-year-old German tourist was killed by a shark while swimming near the shore at the major Sinai Peninsula resort Sharm el-Sheikh.
MILITANT ATTACKS ON TOURISTS
Russian Metrojet flight 9268 crash On October 31, 2015, a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai Peninsula shortly after takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.
Investigations revealed the aircraft broke up mid-air after a loud noise was heard in the cockpit.
It was later determined that a bomb likely caused the explosion. Islamic State’s official magazine later claimed responsibility, publishing a photo of a Schweppes can, alleging it was used to make the bomb.
Egypt’s initial report stated the crash was not terrorism-related. However, nearly a year later, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi acknowledged that terrorists downed the plane to harm tourism and strain Cairo’s relations with Russia.
Taba bus bombing
On February 16, 2014, a suicide bomber targeted a tourist bus in Taba, near the Israeli border, resulting in the deaths of three South Korean tourists and the Egyptian bus driver.
The attack was claimed by the Sinai-based jihadist group Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, which stated it was part of their economic war against the Egyptian regime.
Luxor massacre
On November 17, 1997, six gunmen disguised as security forces killed 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor.
The assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives. The Islamist militant group Al-Jama’a Al-Islamiyya claimed responsibility, stating it was an attempt to undermine the government and damage the tourism industry.
Successive governments in Egypt have waged successful crackdowns on Islamist militant groups, launching campaigns that helped the tourism industry recover.
How fatal boating incidents, shark attacks cast shadow on Egypt’s tourism
https://arab.news/72u32
How fatal boating incidents, shark attacks cast shadow on Egypt’s tourism
- Recent series of boating incidents and shark attacks on tourists have raised concerns, with several fatalities reported over the years
Yemen’s Houthis claim they shot down another American drone as US strikes pound country
- The reported shootdown over Yemen’s contested Marib governorate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa and Saada
- The US military acknowledged to The Associated Press being aware of reports of the downing of a Reaper
The reported shootdown over Yemen’s contested Marib governorate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa, the country’s militia-held capital, and Saada, a stronghold for the Houthis.
US President Donald Trump issued a new warning to both the Houthis and their main benefactor, Iran, describing the group as having “been decimated” by the campaign of strikes that began March 15.
“Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us,” Trump wrote on his social media website Truth Social. “We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation.”
He added: “The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.”
Houthis claim they downed another US drone
The militia claimed to have felled a drone in Marib governorate, home to oil and gas fields still under the control of allies to Yemen’s exiled central government. Footage released on social media showed flames in the night, with a Yemeni man claiming a drone had been shot down.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, separately claimed downing the MQ-9 drone in a prerecorded video message.
Saree described the militia targeting the drone with “a suitable locally manufactured missile.” The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles — such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 — capable of downing aircraft.
Iran denies arming the militia, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi militia despite a United Nations arms embargo.
The US military acknowledged to The Associated Press being aware of reports of the downing of a Reaper, but declined to comment further.
General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. The aircraft have been flown by both the US military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen.
The Houthis claim they’ve shot down 20 MQ-9s over the country over the years, with 16 downed during the militia’ campaign over the Israel-Hamas war. The US military hasn’t acknowledged the total number of the drones it has lost there.
Intense US bombings began March 15
An Associated Press review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden, as the US moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis now say have killed at least 61 people, started after the militia threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militia have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none has been hit so far.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decade-long stalemated war, which has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Egyptian inmates’ ordeal in Sudan prisons
CAIRO: Prisoners held by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan spoke on Monday of their ordeal in paramilitary detention centers.
Arrested two months after the country’s civil war began in April 2023, Egyptian traders suspected of spying for the regular army were stripped, tortured and starved, and watched as other inmates died from cholera and malaria.
“You couldn’t go two weeks without falling sick,” said Emad Mouawad, 44, who was held at the notorious Soba prison in southern Khartoum after paramilitary forces raided his home in the city.
At night, swarms of insects crawled over the prisoners. “There was nothing that made you feel human,” he said.
Ahmed Aziz, who was detained with Mouawad, said: “They would bring us hot water mixed with wheat flour. Just sticky, tasteless paste.” Water was either polluted from a well or muddy from the Nile. “If you were sick, you just waited for death,” Aziz said.
Another trader, Mohamed Shaaban, 43, said: “They stripped us naked as the day we were born. Then they beat us, insulted and degraded us.”
Back home in Egypt, the former prisoners are struggling to recover physically and mentally. “We have to try to turn the page and move on,” Shaaban said. “We have to try and forget.”
New Syrian Cabinet ‘won’t be able to satisfy everyone’
- Interim president says 23 ministers chosen for competence and expertise, not ideology
DAMASCUS: The new transitional government in the Syrian Arab Republic would aim for consensus in rebuilding the war-torn country but would “not be able to satisfy everyone,” interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said on Monday
The transitional 23-member Cabinet was named at the weekend, more than three months after Sharaa’s forces led an offensive that toppled dictator Bashar Assad. The new authorities were seeking to reunite and rebuild the country and its institutions after nearly 14 years of civil war, Sharaa told a gathering at the presidential palace broadcast on Syrian television after Eid Al-Fitr prayers.
“A new history is being written for Syria ... we are all writing it,” he said.
Sharaa said ministers had been chosen for competence and expertise, “without ideological or political orientations.” The government’s composition took into consideration “the diversity of Syrian society” while rejecting a quota system for religious or ethnic minorities, instead opting for “participation,” he said.
Three killed in Israeli strike targeting Hezbollah militant in Beirut
- Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems “strategic”
BEIRUT: At least three people were killed and seven wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-aligned group.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it attacked a Hezbollah militant “who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them.”
There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah on the identity of the target.
Israel resumed a ground and air campaign in the Gaza enclave last month, demanding that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, lay down its arms.
The strike in Beirut appeared to have damaged the upper three floors of a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh, a Reuters reporter at the scene said, with the balconies of those floors blown out. The glass on the floors below was intact, indicating a target strike. Ambulances were at the scene to recover casualties.
There was no evacuation warning issued for the area ahead of the strike, and families fled in the aftermath to other parts of Beirut, according to witnesses.
The November truce halted the year-long conflict and mandated that southern Lebanon be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, that Lebanese troops deploy to the area and that Israeli ground troops withdraw from the zone. But each side accuses the other of not entirely living up to those terms.
The US-brokered ceasefire has looked increasingly flimsy lately. Israel delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and said in March that it had intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon, which led it to bombard targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the rocket firings.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest attack.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities. The campaign began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border, and Israel said the militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people into captivity in Gaza.
Trump says ‘real pain is yet to come’ for Houthis, Iran
- The Houthis began targeting shipping after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians
- Trump’s threat comes as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leaking of a secret text chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump vowed Monday that strikes on Yemen’s Houthis will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping, warning the rebels and their Iranian backers of “real pain” to come.
“The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Shortly after Trump’s threat, Yemeni rebel media said two US strikes Monday hit the island of Kamaran, off the Hodeida coast.
Houthi-held parts of Yemen have faced near daily attacks since the US launched a military offensive on March 15 to stop them threatening vessels in key maritime routes. The first day alone, US officials said they killed senior Houthi leaders, while the rebels’ health ministry said 53 people were killed.
Since then, rebels have announced the continued targeting of US military ships and Israel.
In his post Monday, Trump added that the Houthis had been “decimated” by “relentless” strikes since March 15, saying that US forces “hit them every day and night — Harder and harder.”
Trump’s threat comes as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leaking of a secret text chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes.
It also comes amid a sharpening of Trump’s rhetoric toward Tehran, with the president threatening that “there will be bombing” if Iran does not reach a deal on its nuclear program.
The Houthis began targeting shipping after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
Houthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic. Ongoing attacks are forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.
“Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation,” Trump said.
The rising rhetoric from the Trump administration comes as it copes with the phone text scandal.
The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor — a well-known US journalist — was accidentally included in a chat on the commercially available Signal app where top officials were discussing the Yemen air strikes.
The officials, including Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed details of air strike timings and intelligence — unaware that the highly sensitive information was being simultaneously read by a member of the media.
Trump has rejected calls to sack Waltz or Hegseth and branded the scandal a “witch hunt.”
“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.
