Two 'Israeli Mossad officers' and two Egyptians charged with spying after militants claim responsibility for Sinai bus bombing

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Egypt's public prosecutor has charged four men with spying for Israel, as it also condemned an apparent escalation by Egypt's jihadist insurgency against the new military-backed authorities.

In a statement, the prosecution office ordered the arrest of Samuel Ben Zeev and David Wisemen, both of whom were described as "officers in the Israeli Mossad". It was not clear whether the two men are in Egypt.

Two Egyptians, Ramzy Mohamed and Sahar Ibrahim, were also accused of providing the Israeli pair with information about Egypt, "in exchange for money and gifts and sex".

Although Egyptian ties with Israel have improved since the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted in a 3 July military coup, accusations of foreign influence remain powerful in a country gripped by an aggressive resurgent nationalism.

The interim authorities have repeatedly blamed Egypt's problems on the presence of foreign agents or "fifth columnists".

Egypt has been wracked by violence since Morsi's overthrow. In the early months, the most high-profile incidents were led by the state against large gatherings of the former president's supporters. However, while the aggressive state-led crackdown on Islamist dissenters has pushed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood largely underground, it is now emboldening more radical groups.

On Tuesday morning, al-Qaida-linked militants claimed responsibility for an attack on an Egyptian tourist bus, the first sign that the growing militant insurgency has set its sights on the fragile tourism industry.

The attack on the bus, which was travelling to Israel from St Catherine's Monastery, a popular tourist destination in the Sinai peninsula, killed three South Koreans and their Egyptian driver.

In a statement, Ansar Bayt el-Maqdis said it had "successfully sacrificed one of its heroes to detonate the bus headed toward the Zionists, and this comes as part of our economic war against this regime of traitors". Ansar Bayt el-Maqdis, the highest-profile and seemingly most capable of a number of jihadist groups in Egypt, has claimed responsibility for attacks across the Sinai peninsula and the Egyptian mainland.

Since Morsi's overthrow, there have been at least 308 attacks on security installations in the Sinai peninsula alone, according to figures from David Barnett, a research associate at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies.

The prime minister, Hazem el-Beblawi, said on Tuesday that those responsible for Sunday's bus blast had aimed to undermine the political timetable unveiled by Egypt's interim authorities in July.

Although militants have repeatedly promised to target the economic interests of Egypt's military-backed authorities, these had previously been confined to military-run gas pipelines.

Attacks on the tourism industry strike the government in its soft underbelly: Egypt's faltering economy. Although the country has reaped significant financial benefits from its world-renowned heritage sites, 2013 was the worst year in the sector's modern history. In an interview with the Guardian last week, the tourism minister, Hisham Zaazou, described once teeming heritage areas as "ghost towns".

He stressed, however, that the country's growing insurgency had not yet affected foreigners. "What you have seen in Egypt so far is an Egyptian-Egyptian issue," he said. "It's not an Egyptian-foreigner issue, it's not an Egyptian-tourist issue."

Images of Sunday's tourist bus blast proved a powerful rebuttal to his claims.

Two of Britain's biggest tour companies, Thomson and First Choice, have now suspended day trips to St Catherine's Monastery, a Unesco world heritage site, from the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Jihadist expert Barnett cautioned against interpreting Sunday's attack as indicative of a new trend. While he described it as a "worrying development", he predicted that security installations will continue to bear the brunt of Ansar Bayt el-Maqdism attacks in coming months.

On Tuesday, the uncertainty deepened further after a Twitter account, claiming to be affiliated to Ansar Bayt el-Maqdis, appeared to explopit mounting fears, warning tourists to leave Egypt and threatening to attack those who remained in the country after 20 February.

Although Ansar Bayt el-Maqdis has a plethora of what appear to be imitation Twitter accounts, the group has insisted in official statements it does not have a social media presence.