A look into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula from the Israeli side of the border. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israel’s National Security Council is considering an Egyptian request to downgrade the Israeli travel advisory to the Sinai Peninsula, which has been at its most severe level since 2004.

According to a report by Kan that aired on Monday, the request came up during talks between an Israeli delegation that traveled to Cairo in recent weeks to discuss arrangements for the Gaza Strip, as well as a possible prisoner and missing in action (MIA) exchange with Hamas.

The Israeli Counter-Terrorism Bureau, a part of the National Security Council, has classified the Sinai as part of its most severe terrorism level—“a very high concrete threat”—for the past 17 years.

In 2004, 34 people were killed and 171 injured, including Israeli citizens, in three car-bombing attacks on tourist destinations in the Peninsula.

Still, the area has been a popular destination for its coral reefs and sea activities, natural desert setting, and, of course, its history.

Currently, ISIS’s branch in Sinai remains active in the northern part of the Peninsula, where it launches regular attacks on Egyptian security forces, but not in the southern and central resorts in the eastern part of the Peninsula.

According to the report, Egypt requested the downgrade as a goodwill gesture by Israel and not as a pre-condition for making progress on Gaza.