The resort featured 15 beachside bungalows, a diving center, and windsurfing equipment, attracting European tourists and foreign diplomats stationed in Khartoum.
By Hezy Laing
The secret operation known as Operation Brothers represents one of the most daring chapters in espionage history, where Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad, utilized a fake holiday resort to rescue thousands of Ethiopian Jews.
Operating primarily between 1981 and 1985, the mission centered on Arous Holiday Village, an abandoned desert dive resort located on the Red Sea coast of Sudan, approximately 70 kilometers north of Port Sudan.
The complex was originally constructed by Italian entrepreneurs in 1972 but abandoned due to a lack of water and electricity.
Recognizing its strategic coastal location, Mossad operatives used a Swiss front company to lease the site from the Sudanese Tourist Corporation for $320,000.
Under the leadership of senior Mossad operative Dani Limor, who masterminded the field logistics, and key operative Yola Reitman, who managed daily resort operations, Arous was transformed into a legitimate, high-end tourist destination.
The resort featured 15 beachside bungalows, a diving center, and windsurfing equipment, attracting European tourists and foreign diplomats stationed in Khartoum.
Unbeknownst to the guests or local staff, the diving instructors and managers were undercover Israeli agents.
While tourists enjoyed the amenities, the agents engaged in nocturnal rescue missions.
Under the cover of darkness, teams traveled to refugee camps near Gedaref, loaded thousands of Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) refugees onto trucks, and transported them to the coast near Arous.
From there, Israeli naval commandos from Shayetet 13 used Zodiac inflatable boats to ferry the refugees to an Israeli Navy mothership, the INS Bat Galim, waiting in international waters.
Later, the operation transitioned to night flights, utilizing Israeli Air Force C-130 Hercules transport planes that landed on makeshift desert airstrips.
By the time the operation abruptly ended in April 1985 due to a military coup led by Sudanese General Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab, the mission had successfully smuggled at least 6,000 Ethiopian Jews directly through the resort or nearby airstrips, paving the way for larger airlifts like Operation Moses.
