COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The US embassy in Sri Lanka warned citizens on Wednesday of a possible threat to Israeli travelers at a popular surfing destination, prompting the island nation’s police to pledge more security for tourists. The embassy said it had “received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations” in eastern Arugam Bay. The warning comes after social media posts called for a boycott of Israeli-owned businesses in the area.
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 Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has been firing at Israel on a near-daily basis since the following day.
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. Following the US embassy warning, local police said they were unveiling a new security plan to protect tourists. “In view of the war situation in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the police together with intelligence agencies are working on a plan to prot.