Islamic terror groups have targeted Israelis on a number of occasions in Kenya, including a car bomb attack on the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in which fifteen people, three of them Israelis, were killed, and an unsuccessful hand-held rocket attack on an Israeli airliner that had just lifted off from Moi International Airport in Mombassa.
In 1976 Kenya played a crucial role in the rescue of Israeli hostages held in Entebbe, Uganda, when the government of then-President Jomo Kenyatta allowed the Israeli planes on their way back to Israel to stop for refueling in Nairobi.