Magnitude 4.5 earthquake near Taba shakes Eilat, halts Ramon Airport flights

An earthquake centred near Taba, on the Egyptian side of the Gulf of Eilat, was felt in Eilat and nearby communities on Wednesday morning, November 11, 2026. The Times of Israel reported that a preliminary assessment by the Geological Survey of Israel put the quake at 4.5 on the Richter scale, with its source in the Taba area of the Sinai Peninsula at a depth of 8 kilometers. N12 cited the Geological Survey as timing the event at 11:24:55 local time.

The Home Front Command issued an earthquake alert at 11:25, telling people in affected areas to go out into open ground. Sirens sounded in Eilat and in other towns of the Arava. Ramon Airport, which serves Eilat, was evacuated, and the Israel Airports Authority said flight operations there had been suspended until the "completion of inspections and infrastructure checks" at the site.

How strong was it

Most outlets carried the 4.5 figure attributed to the Geological Survey of Israel, the government body that monitors seismic activity in the country. Ynet and The Jerusalem Post both reported 4.5. Two outlets gave different numbers: News.co.il reported a magnitude of 4.4, and Israel Hayom's English headline described it as a 4.3 earthquake. The Geological Survey's figure was described as preliminary.

According to The Times of Israel, the Home Front Command usually sends earthquake warnings only for tremors above 4 on the Richter scale. Ynet reported that the alert was extended to additional Arava communities because of the strength of the quake.

The Home Front Command and its alerts

The Home Front Command is the branch of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for civil defence, including warnings to the public about rocket fire and natural hazards such as earthquakes. Its alerts reach phones and public sirens, and it publishes instructions through its app, website and Telegram channel. After the alert, the IDF spokesperson urged the public to follow official guidance on the Home Front Command app and website and said the details were being examined.

For Israelis, an alert siren is most strongly associated with missile attacks, and residents interviewed by N12 described that confusion. One Eilat resident, Shimon Algarbali, told the channel he was in a park with his granddaughters when the alert sounded, that he had started to run for a shelter assuming it was a missile warning, and that the announcement of an earthquake came as a surprise. He said schoolchildren in the area had been brought outside. Another resident, Niv Kandi, told N12 he had just fallen asleep after a work shift when he felt his bed shake for about two seconds, and that having lived through the large earthquake in Eilat in '92, he recognised it at once.

Ramon Airport

Ramon Airport is the international airport for Eilat, Israel's southernmost city on the Red Sea coast. Ynet reported that crowds left both a shopping mall in the city and the airport terminal, and N12 broadcast footage of passengers walking out of the terminal while the alert was in effect.

Take-offs and landings were frozen after the quake. N12 and News.co.il both reported that an Arkia flight was held in the air and told not to land, and News.co.il published footage it said a follower had sent from a plane over Eilat that had not been given landing clearance. The Times of Israel's military correspondent noted that flight tracking sites showed an Arkia flight from Ben Gurion Airport heading to Ramon. The Israel Airports Authority did not give a time for flights to restart.

Damage reports differ

Initial reports said nothing was damaged and nobody was hurt. The Times of Israel and News.co.il both said there were no reports of damage or injuries. However, N12 correspondent Dean Fisher reported light damage at the airport, mostly to glass, adding that no damage to other infrastructure was known. No injuries were reported by any outlet.

Where the quake struck

Taba is an Egyptian resort town on the Sinai side of the border, next to Eilat at the northern tip of the gulf that Israelis call the Gulf of Eilat. The gulf lies along the geological fault system that runs north through the Arava valley toward the Dead Sea, a seismically active zone where tremors felt in southern Israel are not unusual.

What the reports do not say

None of the reports say when flights at Ramon Airport resumed or how many passengers were affected. No Egyptian assessment of the quake or of any effects in Taba or elsewhere in Sinai has been reported, and the Geological Survey's magnitude remains a preliminary figure.