The Hilton Hotel in Taba was destroyed by a suicide attacker who drove a
car loaded with explosives into the lobby of the hotel. The car, with an
estimated 500 kilograms of explosives, was detonated in the entrance of the
410-room hotel and casino.
The suit was filed against the Hilton organization in Israel. The
company owns a chain of hotels in the Jewish state.
The plaintiffs, represented by Israeli attorney Moshe Zingel, asserted
that Hilton Taba was warned of the prospect of an insurgency attack. But the
hotel was said to have failed to take adequate measures to protect the
guests, many of them Israelis on vacation.
"The defendant left the security arrangements to the hands of the local
Egyptian workers," the suit read. "Therefore the security procedures
remained at the local level, without feedback and supervision from the
parent company in the United States."
Zingel said the Taba hotel did not have a single security guard at the
entrance. Since the bombing, the Hilton established rings of security as
well as installed cameras around the complex.
In 2007, a U.S. federal judge dismissed a suit against the Hilton
organization. Judge Peter Leisure said the plaintiffs were not connected to
the United States, and suggested that Egypt and Israel would be a better
venue for a trial.
"We hope the case will be heard in the next couple of months," Zingel
said.
