Israel limits travel to Taba terminal with Egypt

Israel on Sunday restricted its citizens from traveling to the Taba border crossing with Egypt for "security reasons", the prime minister's office said. Israelis were forbidden from "travel to the enclave of Taba for security reasons, given warnings about the risk of attack" in the Sinai. It was not clear whether the ban was just for Taba, or applied to traveling anywhere inside the Sinai. In recent weeks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has repeatedly warned Israelis to avoid traveling to Egypt. Israeli units deployed along the southern border with Egypt were ordered on "high alert" late on Friday for fear of a "terrorist attack", an army spokeswoman said. Relations between Egypt -- the first Arab country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in 1979 -- and Israel have been particularly tense since August 18, when Israeli troops killed five Egyptian policemen as they chased militants along the border. That incident followed a series of Negev desert ambushes that killed eight Israelis.