A car accident in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Thursday killed two Israeli tourists and left five injured, the Foreign Ministry said.
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The two fatalities were identified as Matan Luzon, 25, from Petah Tikva, and Yuval Keshet from Haifa. The accident occurred when the Israeli group's van collided head-on with another vehicle.
Magen David Adom ambulance teams and other first responders were dispatched to the Taba border crossing with Egypt to assist with medical needs. The IDF said soldiers from the Airborne Combat Rescue and Evacuation Unit 669 also flew by helicopter to the Egyptian border to assist and evacuate those hurt in the crash.
According to MDA, the injured were transported to hospitals in Israel; none suffered life-threatening injuries.
Sinai, particularly its southern region, has for years been popular with Israeli tourists. They can travel to Sinai without a visa, unlike Egypt's mainland. Traffic slowed due to travel restrictions during the COVID pandemic, but this year looks set to be on par with those prior to the coronavirus outbreak. The peak season will continue through the summer.
The Israel Airports Authority says 1.4 million Israelis crossed into Sinai by car in 2019. The agency oversees the Taba crossing. This year, more than 330,000 Israeli tourists crossed into Egypt by early June, the agency said.
Deadly traffic accidents claim thousands of lives every year in Egypt. In January, at least 16 people were killed and 18 others were injured when a microbus collided with a public transportation bus in Sinai. An Egyptian government's statistics agency says 7,101 people were killed by traffic accidents in Egypt last year.
A relative of one of the injured Israelis told Israel Hayom: "The driver that took them was extremely careless. He passed [other carts] all the time and drove in an unsafe manner, and [the passengers] felt it during the ride. The injured received treatment [in Egypt]."
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