ISRAELIS WARNED OF INCREASED ISIS THREAT ABROAD AHEAD OF PASSOVER HOLIDAY:
Posted onLeading into the Passover and summer travel seasons, Israel has raised travel warnings to the highest level, cautioning Israelis against traveling to Egypt's Sinai region. Counter-Terrorism Bureau Chief, Eitan Ben David, said on 27 March 2017 that "the threat has grown and is the gravest level of threat. Attacks on the Egyptian military, on Coptic Christians, ISIS rockets fired at Eilat and videos from ISIS against Israelis show the high motivation and power of terror groups there to attack Israelis," said Ben David. While Sinai has the highest level of warning at level one of four, other countries also have high warning levels – with Turkey at level two (without special heightened warning for merely stopping over in Turkey’s airport) and Jordan along with Egypt at level three. Level one signals "a very high concrete threat” with advice to avoid any travel to a destination and leave immediately. Level two means "a high concrete threat” with advice to avoid travel to a destination and leave as early as possible. Level three means "a basic-level concrete threat” with advice to avoid travel to a destination. Ben David emphasized that they did not disregard threats from Iran, Hezbollah or others, but that in general the increased threat stemmed mainly from ISIS-related groups. (J.Post)