Accessibility links

Breaking News

Israeli Troops Come Under Fire Along Egyptian Border


Sinai, Egypt
Sinai, Egypt

Attackers in Egypt's Sinai peninsula opened fire on Israeli troops across the border on Wednesday, wounding two soldiers, the Israeli military said.

Islamist militants are active in the lawless peninsula, which borders southern Israel, though assaults across that boundary are rare.

The attackers fired guns and an anti-tank missile at the Israelis, the military said in a statement.

“Two soldiers were injured by fire directed at them from Egypt,” it added, without naming the attackers.

Barrier erected

Security concerns and an influx of tens of thousands of African migrants prompted Israel to erect a 250-kilometer-long (160 mile) barrier from the Red Sea port of Eilat to the Palestinian Gaza Strip on the Mediterranean. It was completed in 2012.

Earlier that year, attacks by Islamist militants operating from Sinai killed an Israeli soldier and a civilian who was working on the frontier fence.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979, and Egyptian forces have been trying to curtail Islamist militant operations in Sinai. Wednesday's attack occurred about half way between Eilat and the Gaza Strip, said the army.

  • 16x9 Image

    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

XS
SM
MD
LG