The Counter-Terrorism Division at the National Security Headquarters publishes today (Monday) the assessment of the situation and the status of travel warnings for the 2023 Spring Holidays.
The publication of the travel warning status is served as a public service at the beginning of the spring and summer tourist season. In this framework, the current situation is reflected to the public by indicating the severity of the travel warning in each country or region, as well as the recommendation of the Counter-Terrorism Division in relation to each warning.
Key highlights:
Iran is still the main generator of global terrorism and continues its activities to promote harm to Israeli citizens around the world directly and through affiliates and proxy elements it operates, in various countries of the world, while violating their sovereignty. In this framework, in the last two years, a number of Iranian intentions to attack Israeli and Jewish targets, among others in Georgia, Turkey, Cyprus and more, have been exposed and thwarted.
According to the MAL’s estimates, Iran will continue to use terrorist activities as a tool to achieve its main goals and will continue to work to promote damage to Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. Arenas with a higher probability of such activity are countries near Iran such as the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Bahrain. and other countries in the Mediterranean basin (Greece, Cyprus) – and in the Middle East, including the Kurdish region in Iraq (prohibited by Israeli law for Israelis to enter).
In the past year, attempts by Iranian terrorist elements to establish contact (under the guise of business/impersonation) with Israeli citizens, in Israel and abroad, continued in order to extract them and promote harm to them or their kidnapping. And more. On the MAL website there are detailed instructions for prevention in this regard.
The various global jihad organizations and radical Islam, the “Islamic State” – ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab and various groups in the world, continue to pose a threat. The “Islamic State” (ISIS) organization has recently shown an increased interest in harming Israelis and Jews and calls on its supporters to harm in these destinations around the world. These organizations currently focus their activities in Africa with an emphasis on the Horn of Africa, the Sahel and some of the Central African countries, in the Middle East with an emphasis on North Sinai and in Asia with an emphasis on Afghanistan, the southern Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Kashmir region of India and parts of Indonesia.
For Israelis staying in Sinai, we recommend staying only in known tourist sites (the secure coastal strip and Sharm), where there is a presence of Egyptian security forces and to avoid trips deep into Sinai or staying in isolated and unfamiliar sites.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the threat from racist and anti-Semitic terrorist groups in the world (white supremacists, neo-Nazis, etc.). Jewish communities (along with other minorities) are a major target for this threat, with religious and community institutions being a preferred target and holidays and special occasions being particularly sensitive. Thus, for example, the attack during Yom Kippur at a synagogue in Germany (Oct 19), the attack at a synagogue in California (Apr 19) happened on the last day of Passover and the attack at a synagogue in Pittsburgh (Oct 18) happened during Shabbat prayers. The main threat arenas in these aspects are North America and Europe. In this context, it will be mentioned that on February 23, a person motivated by anti-Semitic ideology shot and wounded two Jews who were leaving a synagogue in Los Angeles and neo-Nazi organizations declared a “National Day of Hate” against Jews.
The month of Ramadan (23.03- 23.04) partially coincides with the spring holidays and other sensitive remembrance days. Unusual security events throughout Israel may, similar to the past, affect a growing motivation to carry out attacks against Israelis abroad on the part of various terrorist groups.
At MAL, we call on the public planning to visit abroad to check the status of the travel warning for the expected destinations, before purchasing the tickets.