Sinai beach
Sinai beachIsrael news photo: Flash 90

Terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula planned to blow up a bus full of Israeli tourists, and were stopped only by a mechanical failure in the bomb they were using.

The near-attack took place in July, according to a report Wednesday broadcast on Channel 2, as a bus of Israeli tourists made their way from Taba to Sharm a-Sheikh. A group of terrorists discovered that the passengers on the bus were Israelis, and began to follow the vehicle.

The terrorists decided to strike near the town of Nuweibe, along the Sinai coast. The terror cell attempted to detonate a large bomb near the bus.

The powerful explosives failed to detonate due to a mechanical failure. Before the terrorists could fix their broken bomb, however, the bus continued on its way, reaching its destination safely.

The tourists returned to Israel a short time later, unaware that their lives had been in grave danger.

Israel's Counter Terrorism Bureau has issued increasingly strong warnings against travel to the Sinai region since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. The bureau recently warned that there is a “severe and immediate” terrorism alert in Sinai, and called on Israeli citizens to leave the area immediately.

Arab terrorists murdered dozens of Israeli men, women and children in the course of the Great Terror War of the early 2000s in attacks that involved sidling next to a bus with an explosive-rigged car and setting it off near the bus's fuel tank.