2004 Sinai bombings

On the night of 7 October 2004, three bomb attacks struck tourist locations in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt. The first and deadliest occurred at the Hilton Taba hotel, where a truck was driven into the lobby and detonated, killing 31 people, wounding approximately 159 others, and causing ten floors of the hotel to collapse.

About 50 kilometers south, near Nuweiba, two further sites at Ras al-Shitan were targeted. A car bomb exploded in front of a restaurant at the Moon Island resort, killing two Israelis and one Bedouin and wounding twelve. A second device detonated moments later near the Baddiyah tourist camp but caused no injuries, reportedly because the bomber was scared off by a guard before reaching the crowded resort.

In total, 34 people were killed: 18 Egyptians, 12 Israelis, two Italians, one Russian, and one Israeli-American. Egyptian authorities stated that the attackers were Palestinians who had previously attempted and failed to carry out attacks inside Israel. According to the government's account, a man identified as Iyad Saleh masterminded the plot and recruited Egyptians and Bedouins to obtain explosives, with bomb-building beginning in March 2004 using washing-machine timers, mobile phones, and modified gas cylinders, along with TNT and older explosives sourced from Bedouins in the Sinai. Egyptian officials said Saleh and an aide, Suleiman Ahmed Saleh Flayfil, were killed in the Hilton Taba blast itself after their bomb timer ran out prematurely.

Three Egyptian men — Younes Mohammed Mahmoud, Osama al-Nakhlawi, and Mohammed Jaez Sabbah — were sentenced to death in November 2006 in connection with the bombings. Egyptian authorities arrested as many as 2,400 people in the aftermath of the attacks.

Initial statements from Israeli and Egyptian officials pointed toward al-Qaeda involvement, with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom citing the scale and coordination of the attacks as consistent with the group's methods. Egyptian Presidential Spokesman Majid Abd al-Fatah later said there was no evidence linking al-Qaeda to the bombings, instead attributing them to a lone individual acting out of "injustice, aggression and despair" tied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel had issued a warning in September 2004 about planned bombings in the Sinai, though many Israeli tourists disregarded it. Following the attacks, many Israelis and some other foreign tourists left the region, though the broader effect on Egypt's tourism industry was described as limited. Further attacks on tourists followed in Cairo in April 2005, in Sharm El Sheikh in July 2005, and in Dahab in 2006. On 9 May 2006, Egyptian security forces shot and killed Nasser Khamis el-Mallahi, described as a leader of the militant group behind the bombings, in a shootout in Al-Arish.