Israel removes severe travel warning for Sri Lanka’s Arugam Bay

Israeli authorities eased a travel warning for Sri Lanka on Wednesday, some three weeks after cautioning tourists at a popular beach town of an imminent terrorist threat.

The National Security Council, which publishes travel advisories, said it was lowering the warning level for Sri Lanka’s Arugam Bay area from four, which indicates a highly credible threat, to two, indicating a more mild occasional threat.

The high-level threat area had extended across Sri Lanka’s southeastern coast as far as the town of Hikkaduwa.

The rest of the island nation was lowered from level three — moderate — to level two.

The NSC says the threat level is being updated from level 4 (high) in the southwest of the country and level 3 (moderate) in the rest of Sri Lanka, to level 2 (an occasional threat) for the entire country.

The NSC says Israeli travelers should alert local security forces if there are any hostilities toward Jews or Israelis, and cautions against wearing Jewish or Israeli symbols.

Last month, the NSC called on Israelis to leave Sri Lanka’s south and west, and said Israelis should postpone travel to the rest of the country. They also urged nationals to hide signs that indicate they are Israelis and avoid gathering in large numbers.

The United States, which had also issued a warning for Arugam Bay, rescinded its advisory as well on Wednesday, the embassy in Colombo said.

According to an affidavit filed in US federal court late last week, an Afghani man named Farhad Shakeri, recruited by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the FBI on October 28 that he and an accomplice had been ordered to plan a mass shooting attack against Israelis at an unnamed location in Arugam Bay, a popular spot for Israeli surfers chasing an endless summer.

The accomplice, whom the filing identified as one of three people arrested by Sri Lankan authorities a day after the warning was issued, had agreed to provide AK-47s and other weapons for the attack, according to the complaint. The accomplice was unnamed, but was said to have served prison time with Shakeri in the US.

According to reports, three others have since been arrested. No details were available on the suspects.

Israel had advised its nationals in Arugam Bay and nearby areas to leave immediately on October 23, citing the “threat of terrorist attacks against several targets, including popular terrorist locations in Arugam Bay and the south and west coastal areas of Sri Lanka.”

Israelis remaining in the country were advised to go to Colombo, where there were more local security forces, and to hide anything that might identify them as Israelis or avoid gathering in large numbers.

The decision to downgrade the warning came two days after Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry asked the US to cancel its warning. Sri Lankan authorities had bolstered security for tourists following the warnings and on Sunday Defense Secretary Sampath Thuyacontha visited the area around Arugam Bay to assess the security situation.

Israel’s National Security Council cautioned travelers Wednesday to remain vigilant while visiting the country, leaving in place the advisory against wearing Jewish or Israeli symbols.

Protests by local Muslim groups against Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon have drawn support from the wider community in the predominantly Buddhist South Asian nation.

The war broke out following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught last year, which saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people in Israel and kidnap 251. The Starting the next day, Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has been firing at Israel on a near-daily basis.

Israelis accounted for less than 1.5 percent of the 1.5 million tourists who visited the island in the first nine months of this year — or around 20,000 people altogether.

But Arugam Bay, a hotspot for surfing around 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Colombo by road, is a popular destination for Israeli tourists.

Shakeri, the IRGC agent named in the US court filing, remains at large and is thought to be in Iran. According to the complaint, aside from allegedly plotting to attack Israelis at Arugam Bay, he had also plotted attacks for Iran against US President-elect Donald Trump, as well as attempted assassinations of Jewish businesspeople in New York and a prominent Iranian exile.

Source: Times of Israel

--Agencies