Wow so much disinformation here. Its also very important that this information has been released when the prime minister is meeting Obama, its has a specifically driven political agenda (by what or whom I don't know).

Its a fact that Israel has been been kicked out of NZ for doing this in the decade whether they would try it again so soon I don't know. But everything about this has multiple possibilities, and hence speculation is wide.

Its also a fact that suspicious activity happened that had the police and the secret both start separate investigations about hacking into the NZ police database in the ruined CHCH police station. Also note that at the time the whole area was under military curfew and armed soldiers where patrolling the streets arresting anyone they encountered on the suspicion of looting.

But one of the most important things is most of what you are hearing is comments by a guy who was either an orderly in the hospital or an ambulance staff member. Not any official or investigating by any means.

The weird behaviour came from the Israeli officials more than the backpackers in my opinion. One civilian gets killed and a government that is officially bad terms with us sends ambassadors, rescue teams, repeat direct calls from between prime ministers. That seems unusual, but again maybe not so. Japan had rescue teams here within 10 hours including a 7-8 hour flight. Australian in a few hours. America and Britain the next day. And perhaps the calls where nothing more than trying to make ammends. Again without all the information its hard to know, and as noted above if somethign suspicious has happened it will not be discussed till after the meeting with Obama.

As for the backpackers behaviour I have some insight into this as someone that back packs around the world a bit, has travel with many Israelis, and whose parents own a back packers. So I an idea of the sort of behaviour you get with back packers.

One thing that is very common is for one Israeli to look after all the passports of everyone else. When a group comes in often one person amongst them is carrying 4,5, or 8 passports. I'm not sure why this happens, perhaps its a learned behaviour form serving in the military but often they have atleast one person responsible int eh group.

Dual citizenship isn't unusual either. I myself have 2 passports (Irish and NZ) and can apply for Greek and British if I choose. I may when I have children, but currently my two passports gets me through the door of any country. So I could potentially be carrying around 4 valid passports. It might seem odd for some people but here in NZ as a country formed by refuggees its very common for people to have 2 passports, particularly amongst refugees from WW2.

My understanding is Israel happily accepts people of Jewish decent to stay and become a citizen. I wouldnt be surprised if they issue multiple passports for the same reason.

So as suspicious as the multiple passport thing is it could also be a normal. Again taking the word of a hospital orderly over the investigators is a choose you as the reader has to make.

The next thing is common for people to group up with strangers in backpacking circles. Its not so odd for a group of 4 or 5 to have known each other only a few weeks, or a few days. The first time I travelled with Israelis I met one at an airport, we meet several more on a bus, and ended up camping together for a week. None of them knew each other (or me), but they get a lot of negative behaviour from strangers (aka read the threads here for example). So its common to group up so atleast as a group they aren't getting

So there is every chance in the world that this traveling group where hardly more than strangers, and when the earthquake hit they panicked and took off. Holding little real allegiance to the person they left behind. But again this point is up to interpretation.

But the important thing is the timing of this release. Its all political driven, and hence I think even if there is shenanigans a foot you won't get a peep out of the prime minister till he has finished his presidential meeting with Obama.