Israelis Flee After Resort Bombed

It was the last day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and the Taba Hilton was packed with hundreds of Israelis relaxing by the pool, gambling at the casino or watching a belly dance show at this Red Sea resort on the Sinai Peninsula.

Just before 10 p.m. Thursday, a vehicle heavy with explosives sped up the driveway, crashed into the lobby and detonated in a massive blast that blew apart cinderblocks, shattered windows throughout the hotel and brought part of a 10-story wing tumbling down.

Insulation and wires hung from the gaping facade Friday. Wicker chairs, mattresses and an overturned bathtub lay on the floor of the gutted and smoldering lobby. A charred smell hung over the area.

Sheets and blankets tied together dangled from a balcony, remnants of survivors' frantic efforts to escape after the blast, which Israeli officials said killed at least 27 people and left rescuers searching into Friday night for more survivors. Two more car bombings in Ras Shitan, a camping area south of Taba, killed two others.

"We left the Italian restaurant (in the Hilton) and there was a huge explosion. We were near the lobby and we flew back and fell. There was silence, deadly silence, and then there was hysteria," Rachel Atlas told Israel's Channel Two television.

A hotel employee sleeping on the third floor was blown 10 feet into the air and killed, her blood staining the ceiling. A mother and daughter fell from the seventh floor to the first, a plunge that killed the elder woman. Another woman, who had been bathing, died after falling two stories in the tub.

Trees outside the hotel were filled with dozens of dead birds, charred and covered in dust. About a dozen cars, some as far as 70 yards away, were burnt and crushed.

Rescue workers, some using sniffer dogs, sifted through the rubble with their hands, worried that heavy equipment would drown out the sound of survivors' breathing under the rubble.

Israeli and Egyptian rescue crews worked near each other, but not together. As nightfall approached, Orthodox Jewish rescuers paused to observe the onset of the Jewish Sabbath. Minutes later a nearby mosque blared the call to prayer.

Israeli rescuers in green uniforms and yellow helmets swung large hammers to break up the rubble into pieces they could lift. Some made long human chains to remove pieces of brick methodically.

As darkness enveloped the building, rescuers used massive flood lights so they could continue working, though they appeared to be losing hope of finding survivors underneath the piles of concrete and metal.

An Israeli engineer, part of the rescue team, said emergency crews had six layers of rubble to cut through in their search for survivors.

When the blast hit, hotel guest Laurie Zion was drinking coffee with a friend alongside the pool while their husbands gambled in the casino.

"We were told to go down toward the sea, in darkness, because suddenly the electricity disappeared. We were calling out for our husbands," she said, adding that it took way too long for help to arrive.

"There was no rescue, no evacuation. Some of the casualties were laid out on sunbeds at the pool," she said.

The blast threw Ninel Rubinchik, a Russian immigrant to Israel who's worked as a masseuse at the hotel for two years, from her second-floor bed.

Rubinchik wandered the grounds in a daze Friday, a bandage wrapped around her left leg and dried blood covering her forehead. She said she had no idea whether her 29-year-old daughter — taken to a hospital in the neighboring Israeli city of Eilat — is alive or dead.

Taba is the main crossing between Israel and Egypt and the gateway for thousands of Israelis who travel to the hotels and resorts on the Red Sea.

Tens of thousands of Israelis flock to the Egyptian Red Sea beaches each year. Sinai was a symbol of quiet coexistence between Israelis and Arabs — until now, reports CBS News Correspondent Robert Berger.

Israel said it is ready to evacuate any of the Israelis who wish to leave the Egyptian Red Sea coast. The plan is to send buses to the Sinai to bring them home. Details were being worked with Egyptian authorities, Berger reports.

On the night of the attacks, the Taba Hilton was 95 percent occupied, with 800 to 900 people inside, said Mohammed Sameer, assistant credit manager of the hotel. About 500 employees and resort workers also were at the hotel, he said.

Thursday was the last day of the weeklong Jewish festival of Sukkot, when thousands of Israelis were vacationing in the Sinai despite a serious warning from their government a month ago of a "concrete" terror threat.

CBS News Correspondent David Hawkins notes that just last month, the Israeli government issued a warning against visits to Egypt, specifying the Sinai as a target of possible terrorist attacks.

"There are always warnings, usually nothing happens. This time something happened," said Vicky Arazi, a 30-year-old Tel Aviv resident who was among thousands of frightened Israeli tourists who rushed back home Friday.

"We didn't pay attention," she said.