ALEXANDRIA, Egypt – Less than a week after Passover, the angel of death visited Dahab, a beach resort on the Sinai Peninsula that is a favorite for Israelis, killing at least 23 and wounding 180 in a string of three blasts that were soon attributed to Al Qaeda.

The bombs briefly illuminated the dusk as they struck the el-Khaleeg hotel, where 18 were confirmed killed, as well as a police station and open-air marketplace in the el-Masbat section of the seaside town, renowned for its nightclubs and deep sea diving.

The bombings followed the release of an audiotape by Osama bin Laden, threatening revenge for a “Crusader-Zionist war.” The taped message, which the CIA has confirmed is the voice of Mr. bin Laden, faulted the West for cutting funds to the Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority and called extremists to gather and fight on the Arabian peninsula and in remote reaches of Darfur, Sudan, where American and U.N. forces may be dispatched to end Muslim-on-Muslim violence that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than 1 million since 2003.

The bombings come less than two weeks after Egyptian President Mubarak released about 900 members of Gemaa Islamiya, an Egyptian terrorist group that spawned Mr. bin Laden’s deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

The culpability of Al Qaeda for yesterday’s bombings is hotly debated. Egyptian officials tend to discount the role of the world’s most notorious terrorist group, while Israelis and Americans clearly see the hand of Mr. bin Laden in the carnage.

Yesterday, Mr. Mubarak condemned the attacks as “sinful,” but warned it was too soon to pin the blame on any particular organization, including Al Qaeda.

The Muslim Brotherhood, a group founded in Egypt in 1928 to promote a strict vision of Islam that has recently renounced terrorism, was also hesitant to blame Al Qaeda.

“We are not trying to justify, but rather understand these incidents,” the brotherhood’s deputy, Mohammed Habib, told the Sun. “I assume that these are young people that are affected by the general atmosphere. Of course, it would be too hasty to say whether it was young people, an agent of the Mossad or an international organization, yet it’s most probably the first.”

Allegations of Israeli involvement in beach attacks have become a regular feature of the Egyptian press.

A member of Egypt’s parliament and the editor of a state funded newspaper, Mustafa Bakri appeared on Al-Jazeera yesterday to charge that the Israelis had the most to gain from the attack.

Israel’s senior security officials told the Jerusalem Post yesterday they believed the blasts were most likely the work of Global Jihad or Al Qaeda cells in Egypt or Jordan. In addition, Israel’s Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh told the Post that Global Jihad and Al Qaeda “had stepped up their attempts to infiltrate Israel and were in close contact with terror cells in the West Bank” in February 2006.

“I’d bet that an Al Qaeda affiliated group is behind these bombings,” a consultant who works with several federal counter-terrorism agencies, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, said. He cites three reasons for suspecting Al Qaeda: Israeli intelligence reports alleged Al Qaeda was operating in the Sinai Peninsula within 15 miles of the Israeli border; the near simultaneous blasts, a hallmark of Al Qaeda attacks; and similarity with the Al Qaeda attack at Sharm el-Sheik last year.

Beach resort bombings by Al Qaeda-affiliated militants have become a cruel commonplace in the Egyptian Sinai. “The latest bin Laden tape is his most significant statement since the mid-1990s,” Mr. Gartenstein-Ross said. “It is a manifesto that weaves together every paranoid thread in the Jihadi mindset and reorients Al Qaeda’s strategic direction, including the prospect that it has already begun striking Israeli targets.”

The blasts also occurred in the region of Egypt inhabited largely by the country’s Bedouin minority, wandering tribes whose fringe has been drawn to Al Qaeda.

At least three Israelis were murdered in yesterday’s attacks, according to Ynet, an Israeli news service.

Israel intelligence received a credible tip that terrorists might strike in the Sinai, though they had no specific information. Last week Israel issued warnings against travel to the region, which may have dissuaded some who would otherwise be among the dead.

Israel’s interim prime minister, Ehud Olmert, telephoned Mr. Mubarak last night, according to Mr. Olmert’s press adviser, “to express both his condolences and those of the Israeli people over the terrorist attack at Dahab in the Sinai. The two men discussed the need to cooperate in the struggle against global terrorism.”

An Israeli government spokesman declined to elaborate on Mr. Mubarak’s response or to explain why it believes the Egyptian government turned down an offer by Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, to supply medical teams and equipment to aid the wounded. Twenty Israeli ambulances were standing by near the Israel-Egypt border at Taba, some 65 miles away, but were denied entry into Egypt.

Meanwhile, there are signs Mr. bin Laden’s taped threats are being manifest in the Sudan. Almost a dozen Al Qaeda operatives have been detained since January, David Hoile, a London-based consultant to the Sudan government, told the Sun.

Sudanese security services were on high alert at both the African Union summits in January and Arab League heads-of-state summit in March, in Khartoum, due to threats from Al Qaeda.

“Sudanese intelligence had identified specific plans to disrupt both events, especially the Arab League gathering,” Mr. Hoile said. “Arrests were made in January.”

Earlier, audiotapes from Mr. al-Zawahri, the Egyptian-born doctor who is Al Qaeda’s no. 2, condemned Khartoum for its anti-terrorism cooperation with America and vowed to exact revenge.

“The Sudanese authorities have been actively engaged in significant counterterrorism operations with the American and British authorities for some time,” Mr. Hoile said.

“Bin Laden knows that any Western military intervention – either through NATO or the U.N. – will weaken Khartoum and strengthen anti-government extremist Islamist forces within Sudan itself, who feel that Khartoum is too pro-West, as well as rallying international jihadists from across the Middle East.”

“American calls for military intervention in Darfur,” Mr. Hoile said, “threaten to undermine a government that has been very supportive in the war on terrorism.”

The attacks will almost certainly kill any hope of ending Egypt’s draconian Emergency Law, imposed after the 1981 assassination of President Sadat. The law, which gives the state the right to detain citizens indefinitely and try them in secret courts, was set to expire in June.