|
Saturday Sept. 22, 2012 5:28 PM (EST+7)
Israeli soldier, 3 gunmen killed near Egyptian border
|
|
|
JERUSALEM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Three armed militants slipped into Israel from Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Friday, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding another before being shot dead, the army said.
|
|
|
 |
 Looking into Egypt's Sinai from along its border with Israel, February 7, 2011
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Multimedia
 Funeral of Issam Oudhi in Qusra village
Sept. 25, 2011 10:05 AM (EST+7)
Anata farmer injured and Israeli activists assaulted by settlers
Oct. 3, 2011 11:00 AM (EST+7)
Video of flotilla raid smuggled out of Israel
June 13, 2010 4:59 PM (EST+7)
|
 Documents
 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1435
Camp David Accords (1978)
Ehud Olmert‘s Speech at the Annapolis Conference
|
Publications
Poll No. 59, July 2006 - On Palestinian Attitudes Towards the Abduction of the Israeli Soldier & Firing of Rockets
Poll No. 78, Dec. 2012 - Gaza, Resistance and the UN Bid
Poll No. 66 Part 1, November 2008 - A public opinion poll on the 20th anniversary of the Independence Declaration
|
Background
Cairo talks
Education (Palestinian)
Egypt wall
|
Resources
“Suicide and Other Bombing Attacks in Israel Since the Declaration of Principles (Sept 1993),” Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
BBC article on rockets attacks on Kiryat Shmona, August 2006
Cairo's plan B, Gamal A. G. Soltan, Bitterlemons, January 14, 2010 Edition 2 Volume 8
|
|
|
|
It was at least the fourth cross-border attack in just over a year - violence that has persisted despite an Egyptian army and police crackdown on Sinai militants begun last month.
The latest incident underscored deep Israeli concern about faltering security in Sinai since the fall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in a democratic uprising in 2011. Israel is now building a fence along the desert border to improve security.
"A big terror attack was thwarted," Israeli army spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich said of Friday's violence.
"Three terrorists infiltrated from Sinai into Israel and opened fire towards IDF soldiers guarding the border. The terrorists were well armed and carried explosive belts upon their bodies," she added.
General Tal Russo, commander of Israeli troops in the region, said the gunmen ambushed soldiers who had just intercepted some African migrants trying to cross into Israel and were providing water to the group.
"In the first round of fire, one of our fighters was killed," Russo told reporters near the scene. Another soldier was wounded by shrapnel when a gunman blew up due to an explosives vest he was wearing, the general said.
Russo said he had no information on the affiliation of the gunmen but promised an Israeli response for the attack once their identities were discovered. Previous attacks were blamed on Palestinian militants from Gaza and supporters believed to have established bases in the sparsely inhabited Sinai.
An Egyptian security source said one of the gunmen died when a bomb he was carrying detonated and the other two were killed in a gun battle with Israeli forces. He added that the nationalities of the gunmen were not immediately known.
Israel is putting up the border fence both to bolster security and curb an influx of African migrants, hoping to finish it by the end of the year. It will run along most of the 266 km (165 miles) from Eilat on the Red Sea to the Gaza Strip.
Leibovich said Friday's attack occurred about halfway down the border near an area known as Mount Harif, where the barrier is still under construction.
In June, militants fired on Israelis building a section of the barrier, killing a worker, before soldiers shot dead two of the attackers.
In August, Islamist gunmen killed 16 Egyptian border guards in north Sinai and hijacked an armored vehicle which they smashed across the border before being killed by Israeli forces.
Shortly afterward, Egypt sent hundreds of troops backed by tanks, armored vehicles and helicopters into the region in a joint operation with police to raid militant hideouts, arrest suspects and seize weapons.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Cairo and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Mark Heinrich)
|
|
|
 |
Log in
Add comment
Rules
( 0 )
|
|
|
|
logindive
|
All comments on blogs are pre-moderated. This means
comments are read before publication to check there
is no obvious breach of the Rules below. Users who
repeatedly break the rules will be blocked from
posting on JMCC.org.
If you become aware of content that breaches these
Rules, please report the abuse using the link on
each blog post.
|
| Rules |
|
Any posting of any message or content by users to
JMCC.org is subject to the following rules.
|
1. Postings must not:
|
a) contain material that is defamatory, abusive,
threatening, obscene, racially or sexually
offensive, in breach of copyright, trademarks or
other intellectual property rights, sexually
explicit or homophobic or in breach of privacy or
confidentiality or which encourages or condones any
illegal or criminal activity or is in any way
unlawful or inappropriate; |
|
b) contain swearing or inappropriate user names; |
|
c) constitute advertising or virus propagation,
provide weblinks that amount to advertising or which
are inappropriate or constitute spamming or
flooding; |
|
d) impersonate any person or entity; |
|
e) solicit or exchange personal information - for
example do not give out your email address, home
address, work place or telephone number or arrange
to meet anyone; |
|
f) be misleading or inaccurate or portray anyone in
a false light; or |
|
g) contain material that is copied or that you do
not own. |
2. You are responsible for liability and any legal
action arising from your posting. You indemnify us
against all losses, claims, damages and expenses
(including the cost of defending or settling any
claim or damages), whether foreseeable or
unforeseeable, suffered or incurred directly or
indirectly arising from your posting.
3. Please be aware that it is possible to trace
internet activity to a specific computer.
4. By submitting a posting to JMCC.org, you grant us
a worldwide royalty free license to use your content
in perpetuity and at our discretion in any media now
known or hereafter developed and you now give us all
waivers (including waivers of moral rights) and
consents to do so.
5. We may refuse to publish and/or remove any
content at any time for any reason at our sole
discretion. If you breach these Rules we may also
prohibit you from submitting further postings to
JMCC.org.
6. We are not responsible or liable for any posting
or for its accuracy.
|
|
|
|
|
Looking into Egypt's Sinai from along its border with Israel, February 7, 2011
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To subscribe to free newsletter submit your email |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|