Source: Injured Israeli tourist denounces mistreatment of Egyptians in…
Found on: 2022-07-29 22:08:35
One of the Israeli tourists injured in a deadly traffic collision in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula said Friday that local doctors initially refused to treat the Israelis at the scene, demanding they prepay for an ambulance to transport them. to Israel.
Two Israelis were killed and five injured when a taxi van carrying youth counselors returning from a beach holiday collided with another car while speeding towards the Taba border crossing on Thursday.
“The treatment of the Egyptians was very bad,” said Na’ama Banon, one of the seven Jerusalem boarding school counselors who were in the taxi van.
Two of his friends – Yuval Keshet, 24, from Haifa, and Moshe Matan Luzon, 25, from Petah Tikva – were killed; Banon and the others suffered minor to moderate injuries.
Banon spoke to reporters from an Israeli hospital a day after the accident. She remembered that the driver had played Hebrew songs for them before she fell asleep. She was woken up by the strong shock just 20 minutes from the border.
Banon said rescuers first tended to the Egyptian driver before trying to pull out the injured Israelis trapped in the wreckage.
“They preferred to attend to the driver first,” he said.
He said staff at a clinic in the Egyptian coastal city of Nuweiba, to which they were initially taken, refused to allow them to use a phone to contact the Israeli Foreign Ministry for help. Finally, one of the employees agreed to open a hotspot from his phone and the Israeli group managed to inform their families and the Israeli authorities.
During this time, doctors at the clinic pronounced Keshet and Luzon dead. Their funerals were expected to take place over the weekend.
When the ambulances arrived at the clinic to transport the group to the border, they demanded payment in advance. The young tourists had no cash, but an Israeli couple who were at the scene agreed to pay 1,200 Egyptian pounds ($63) for each of the evacuees, Banon said.
He claimed that the Egyptian authorities demanded that the Israeli group sign documents exonerating the government from responsibility for what happened before they could leave.
Banon recounted being dragged with her friends to a local court “when we were wounded and mentally broken” to have them sign papers before being taken to the border.
Banon’s account could not be immediately corroborated. Egyptian authorities were not available for comment.
According to Hebrew media, Israel Defense Forces helicopters were initially dispatched to help transport the wounded to hospitals in Israel. However, Cairo did not allow the helicopters to land inside Egypt, delaying the return of the Israelis for several hours.
The father of one of the injured Israelis told Kan News on Thursday that his daughter had accused the driver of reckless speeding before the accident.
“The driver was going at a crazy speed, he overtook [a otro vehículo] and collided with an oncoming car,” he told Kan, citing his daughter.
Traffic accidents kill thousands of people every year in Egypt, which has a poor record on transportation safety.
Earlier this month, 23 people were killed when a passenger bus collided with a tractor-trailer parked on a highway in southern Egypt.
In January, at least 16 people were killed and 18 others injured when a minibus collided with another public transport in the Sinai Peninsula. In April last year, a bus overturned while trying to overtake a truck on a highway in the southern province of Assiut, leaving at least 21 dead and three injured.
In 2006, 12 Israelis were killed and many others injured in a road accident in Sinai. Some of the families of the victims claimed that it was a terrorist attack and that the driver deliberately crashed the vehicle.
Via: The Times Of Israel