Egypt raids Sinai villas in search of Palestinians

AL-ARISH, Egypt, Dec 2 (Reuters) Egyptian security forces raided dozens of seaside villas and apartments in the Sinai peninsula today, hunting four Palestinians suspected of planning attacks on Israeli tourists, security sources said.

''The Egyptian security apparatus received confirmed information about four Palestinians who belong to one of the extremist Palestinian factions sneaking into Egyptian territory across the international border between Egypt and Gaza,'' one of the sources said.

The sources said the Palestinians were believed to have entered Egypt five days ago and Egyptian authorities were conducting their search in north Sinai.

The Palestinians were suspected of seeking to carry out attacks on Israeli tourists in retaliation for a 5-month Israeli offensive in Gaza, the sources said.

The offensive ended this week after Palestinian militants said they would halt rocket fire from Gaza if Israel stopped targeting Palestinians in Gaza.

Egypt is calling on Sinai landlords to inform police immediately of any Palestinians staying in their villas or furnished flats.

Egyptian beaches are a popular vacation destination for Israelis. Israeli holidaymakers were among those killed in a series of bomb attacks on Sinai tourist resorts since October 2004 in which more than 100 people have died.

Egypt has blamed the bomb attacks on an Islamist group called al-Tawhid wal Jihad (One God and Jihad) and says the group is made up of Sinai bedouin with militant views. Three men have been sentenced to death for organising the attacks.

Israel occupied Sinai in the 1967 West Asia war and handed it back to Egypt under a 1979 peace treaty.

REUTERS PB KP2138