Rocket Attacks on Eilat and Aqaba

Eilat lies at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba, immediately west of the Jordanian port city of Aqaba and close to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. This geography placed Israeli, Jordanian, Egyptian, and visiting American targets within rocket range of the same launch areas. Rockets directed toward Eilat or port facilities sometimes struck Jordanian territory instead.

After Egypt's 2011 revolution, Sinai increasingly served as a base and transit area for terrorist organizations and weapons smuggling. Israeli reporting described weakened Egyptian control and growing activity by global-jihad organizations, while an Israeli Security Agency summary recorded a sharp rise in Sinai-based attacks during 2012.[1][2] Disputes over launch origins were particularly visible after the August 2010 and April 2013 attacks, when Egyptian officials rejected or questioned Israeli assessments that the rockets had come from Sinai.

The attacks developed in several phases. The 2005 strike was launched from Aqaba and reportedly targeted American ships. The principal 2010 incidents were launched toward both Eilat and Aqaba, while most attacks from 2012 through 2017 were associated with terrorist organizations operating in Sinai. Israeli annual summaries recorded seven Sinai rocket attacks in 2012 and three attacks involving five rockets in 2013.[2][3] Iron Dome subsequently became a recurring part of Eilat's defense, including during the Islamic State-claimed barrage of February 2017.[4]

On August 19, 2005, three Katyusha rockets were fired from Aqaba toward Eilat and port facilities around the Gulf of Aqaba. One landed near Eilat's airport, while two were fired toward Aqaba's port. A Jordanian soldier was killed when one of the rockets missed its intended target.[5][6]

A network using the Abdullah Azzam name and described as affiliated with al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. Its statement said American military ships in the ports of Aqaba and Eilat had been the intended targets, but that account represented the organization's claim rather than independent confirmation.[5] Other reporting also recorded a separate claim by al-Qaeda in Iraq, leaving responsibility formally unverified.

Two attacks in 2010 established Sinai as a recurring launch area in accounts of the campaign.

April 22, 2010

Several rockets were fired toward Eilat and Aqaba. A retrospective Ynet report said most exploded at sea and another passed over Eilat before exploding in Aqaba; it reported no casualties on the Israeli side.[1] Contemporary accounts generally described the launch as originating in Sinai, although the available reporting did not establish responsibility conclusively.

August 2, 2010

The more serious attack occurred on the morning of August 2. Reports differed over whether five, six, or seven rockets were involved and over where each projectile landed. Ynet reported five rockets: one in open ground near Eilat, three in the Red Sea, and one near Aqaba's InterContinental Hotel.[6] The World Jewish Congress reported six impacts distributed among northern Eilat, Aqaba's hotel district, the sea, and Sinai.[7] N12 later reported six rockets and said two had fallen near Eilat's salt ponds.[8]

No casualties were reported in Eilat. In Aqaba, Jordanian Subhi al-Alauna died after being wounded. Ynet reported five people initially injured, including the man who later died, while the World Jewish Congress reported one killed and three wounded.[6][7]

Attribution remained contested. The IDF assessed that Global Jihad terrorists had fired from Sinai, while Egyptian officials initially denied a Sinai origin.[6] Egyptian security sources subsequently said Palestinian terrorists had entered Sinai from Gaza to conduct the attack.[8] An Israeli Security Agency annual summary stated that two 2010 Sinai-to-Eilat rocket attacks occurred under directives from Gaza-based Hamas, although it did not provide incident-specific evidence.[9] Hamas denied involvement.

The Israeli Security Agency recorded seven rocket attacks from Sinai into Israel during 2012, involving eight rockets and mostly targeting Eilat.[2] The U.S. State Department separately listed an April 5 attack on Eilat, two rockets fired from Sinai toward Israel on June 16, and two rockets fired at Eilat on August 15, for which Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility.[10]

The April incident received the most detailed coverage. After explosions late on April 4, security forces found Grad remnants near a construction site in Eilat's Shachmon neighborhood. Globes reported that the rocket fell in open ground in western Eilat, that shrapnel landed within about 10 meters of houses, and that no injuries or property damage occurred, although several people suffered shock.[11]

Two days later, additional remnants were found and authorities assessed that two rockets had been fired from Sinai. IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz characterized the fire as a hostile act by Sinai-based terrorist organizations, while Military Intelligence chief Aviv Kochavi cited it as evidence of changing security conditions in the peninsula.[12] A defense source later assessed that the Popular Resistance Committees were probably responsible and had acted in retaliation for the killing of the organization's secretary-general, but this remained an attributed Israeli assessment.[13]

The Israeli Security Agency recorded three Sinai rocket attacks toward Eilat in 2013: two rockets on April 17, two on July 4, and one on August 13. Five rockets were counted in total, with no victims reported in the annual summary.[3]

On April 17, two Grad rockets struck around Eilat. A Jewish Virtual Library chronology reported that one landed in a residential area, that the IDF identified Sinai as the launch origin, and that the Mujahideen Shura Council claimed responsibility.[14] Egyptian officials denied that the rockets had been launched from Egyptian territory, while Israeli officials continued to identify Sinai as the probable source.[15]

Accounts of the August 13 incident differed. The Israeli Security Agency counted one rocket, while contemporaneous reporting described an Iron Dome interception and additional explosions or launches. That reporting said several people were treated for shock and recorded competing responsibility claims involving the Mujahideen Shura Council and Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.[3][16] The disagreement may reflect different methods of counting launches, detected projectiles, or rockets reaching Israeli territory.

Reports record several rocket incidents around Eilat during 2014, rather than the two incidents stated in the original draft.

On January 31, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed that it had launched two Grad rockets toward Eilat. The IDF confirmed an Iron Dome interception, and no injuries or damage were reported.[17] A separate chronology records that three rockets fired at Eilat on April 1 were intercepted by Iron Dome.[14]

During Operation Protective Edge in July, rockets launched from Egyptian territory struck Eilat. The U.S. State Department reported that Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis claimed the attack and that multiple Israelis were wounded.[18] A Times of Israel account described two projectiles striking the city center, damaging a car and lightly injuring seven people.[19] Other reporting recorded a competing claim by Palestinian Islamic Jihad's Jerusalem Battalions, but did not establish independently that its operatives had fired the rockets.

On February 8, 2017, four rockets were fired from Sinai toward Eilat. Iron Dome intercepted three, while the fourth fell in open ground west of the city. No physical injuries or damage were reported, although five people were treated for anxiety and rocket fragments were reportedly found in a hotel swimming pool.[19]

The Islamic State's Sinai Province, known as Wilayat Sina'a, claimed responsibility. Its statement declared that "the war with the Israeli enemy has begun."[4] The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs assessed that the attack served a propaganda purpose by allowing the organization to demonstrate activity while facing pressure in Sinai, Iraq, and Syria.[4]

The Sinai barrage was distinct from a rocket fired from Gaza two days earlier by a small pro-Islamic State Salafi organization. The same analysis assessed that the Gaza organization had sought to provoke an Israeli response against Hamas.[4]

During the war that began with the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, the IDF reported that Arrow 2 intercepted a Hamas rocket launched toward Eilat on November 4 from approximately 250 kilometers away. The account described it as the greatest distance reached by a Hamas rocket at that time.[20]

On September 18, 2025, three missiles were fired from Yemen toward Eilat. One was intercepted, one failed to reach Israel, and the third struck the entrance to a hotel. The cited chronology does not state whether the impact caused casualties.[14] These attacks came from different theaters and were not part of the earlier Sinai campaign, but illustrate Eilat's continuing exposure to long-range fire.

The attacks made air defense a continuing element of security planning around Eilat. Iron Dome detected or intercepted rockets during the 2013 incidents, the January and April 2014 attacks, and the February 2017 barrage.[3][17] In 2017, the system intercepted three of four rockets fired from Sinai, while the later Arrow 2 interception in 2023 demonstrated Israel's ability to engage a much longer-range threat.[4][20]

The sequence also reflected changes among Sinai terrorist organizations. Israeli assessments linked the 2010 attacks to Gaza-based Hamas direction; the Mujahideen Shura Council and Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis issued claims during 2012–2014; and the Islamic State's Sinai Province claimed the 2017 barrage. Because many of these attributions rested on intelligence assessments or organizational communiqués, they should not all be treated as independently proven responsibility.

Jordan bore the deadliest consequences of the earlier attacks. A Jordanian soldier was killed in 2005, and a Jordanian civilian was killed in the August 2010 strike. The attacks therefore created a cross-border security problem in which rockets directed toward Israeli or American targets also endangered Aqaba's residents and tourism district.

The reporting record contains persistent disagreements over rocket totals, impact sites, casualties, launch origins, and responsibility. For August 2010, Ynet reported five rockets, while N12 and the World Jewish Congress described six; other accounts cited an Egyptian total of seven.[6][8] The reported number wounded in Aqaba ranged from three to five, depending partly on whether the man who later died was initially included among the injured.[6][7]

Official attribution also changed over time. Egypt initially denied that the 2010 rockets had come from Sinai, while later Egyptian reporting blamed Palestinians who had entered Sinai from Gaza. Israeli assessments variously referred to Global Jihad terrorists or Hamas direction.[6][9] In 2013, the Israeli Security Agency counted one rocket toward Eilat on August 13, whereas contemporary reporting described two launches or explosions.[3][16]

These discrepancies do not establish a single alternative account. They instead show the difficulty of reconstructing incidents involving multiple jurisdictions, incomplete rocket recoveries, organizational propaganda, and rapidly changing official statements.