Two extremely loud explosions were heard in the southern resort city of Eilat Thursday night. Many residents phoned police fearing rocket attacks from Sinai.

Security forces have been checking open areas in the hope of finding the remains of the rockets but nothing was found as of Friday morning. Officials report the rockets may have landed in Egypt territory.

After meeting to evaluate the situation, IDF and Israel Police commanders decided to return to regular activities and not to heighten the alert status in the city. There are increased fears of terrorist activities from Sinai as Egypt is in a state of turmoil. Intelligence experts in Israel fear terrorists may take over Sinai, which is supposed to be a demilitarized zone in keeping with the peace agreement signed between Israel and Egypt.

However, with the ousting of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the intelligence community in Israel is carefully monitoring the situation, aware the limited protests and conflict seen over recent days may explode into a full blown civil war mimicking events in Syria. There are growing concerns as there is an increase in the number of reported shooting incidents, signaling the violence is escalating.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)