(Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

(Photo: Xinhua/AFP)

(Photo: Xinhua/Reuters)

Red Sea resort hotel in Taba, Egypt. (File photo: Xinhua/AFP)

    BEIJING, Oct. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- An explosion rocked the Hilton Hotel in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Taba Thursday night, killing at least 35 people and injuring more than 160 others, Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite TV channel reported.

    The explosion was a result of a car bombing that rips through the hotel, both Israeli and Egyptian sources were quoted as saying.

    Medical sources at the Taba Hospital said over 100 were killed or injured in the explosion, adding that the number of casualties was likely to rise.

    Most of the dead were believed to be Israeli tourists, according to Israeli TV stations. Earlier, Egyptian police sourcessaid the huge explosion killed at least 23 Israelis.

    Witnesses at the scene said part of the hotel had collapsed following the explosion. "The hotel is on fire on the eastern side,the entry point, the lobby. People are trying to get out," they said.

    A large number of people were wounded in the blast and many of them were being evacuated to an Israeli hospital in Eilat neighboring Taba, they added.

    Shortly after the Taba blast, two other explosions also hit Egypt's resort towns of Nueiba and Ras al-Sultan in Sinai Peninsula, dozens of kilometers southwest of Taba, killing at least seven people, media reports said.

    Thousands of Israeli tourists are in the Red Sea resorts of theSinai Peninsula over the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

    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. Thursday is the last day of the week-long Sukkot, when thousands of Israelis vacationed in the Sinai.

    Egyptians also were in the midst of a long holiday weekend marking the anniversary of the start of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war,so popular resort towns along the Sinai coast were packed.     

    ISRAEL LAUNCHES RESCUE OPERATIONS

    The three explosions came a month after the Israeli government urged citizens not to visit Egypt, citing a "concrete" terror threat to tourists in an area.

    The warning, issued on Sept. 9 by the counter-terrorism center in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office, identified the Egyptian resorts of the Sinai Peninsula as the target of a potential attack.

    Quickly after the blasts, Sharon was being briefed and foreign ministry officials were coordinating rescue operations with Egyptian authorities.

    Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom asked his Egyptian counterpart for the help of rescuing Israelis wounded in the blasts.

    Rescue forces arrived at the scene after waiting for Egyptian permission to cross the border, and injured hotel guests were being evacuated to the border crossing in Taba.

    Israeli army sappers, who have experience in disaster-rescue, were also crossing the border to aid in rescue efforts, amid reports of victims still trapped in the rubble.     

¡¡¡¡PALESTINE DENIES INVOLVEMENT

    Jibril Rajoub, a national security advisor to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said he believed that Palestinian militant groups can never be involved at all in the bombing attack because they focus their attacks on Israeli military occupation into the Palestinian territories and not outside.

    The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) also said Israel is tobe blamed for the car bombing attack in Taba.

    Abdallah Abdallah, a director of the PNA Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite channel that the PNAis expressing its sorrow and grief for the largest number of victims, whether they are Israelis or Egyptians.

    He said Israel is to be blamed for such bombing attacks especially after its recent widespread military operations carriedout against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

    Israeli army has launched a large-scale operation in northern Gaza since Sept. 28, asserting it aimed to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets at Israel.

    The operation has killed some 80 Palestinians so far, includingmany civilians. Enditem