JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds of Israelis left Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula after being warned to do so immediately.
Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued the warning Tuesday evening, citing "concrete information" that terrorists were planning to kidnap Israelis.
"We call on all Israelis now in Sinai to leave at once and return to Israel," the warning read. "Families of Israelis now in Sinai are requested to make contact and update them of this travel warning."
By mid-morning Wednesday, about 430 of 650 Israelis known to be in Sinai had returned, a police spokesman told Haaretz.
The bureau had called Sinai a travel destination with a "very high and concrete threat" in a travel warning list released a month before Passover.
There was a 36 percent increase in the number of Israelis traveling to Sinai during the Passover holiday season, Israel’s Airport Authority reported.
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