Militants open fire on Israeli civilians after crossing border from Egypt

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/18/militants-israeli-civilians-border-egypt

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Militants have crossed from Egypt's Sinai peninsula into southern Israel and opened fire on civilians building a border security fence, defence officials say. One of the Israeli workers was killed, and two assailants died in a gun battle with Israeli troops responding to the attack.

The military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich said troops were scouring the area to see if other gunmen remained on the loose inside Israel. Israelis living in five small communities in the area were instructed to lock themselves inside their homes, and two major southern roads were closed to civilian traffic.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, which underscored the growing lawlessness in the Sinai desert since the longtime Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was toppled by a popular uprising last year. Leibovich said the military had not identified the assailants but acknowledged that defence officials suspected Palestinian militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which also borders the Sinai desert in the same area, might have been involved.

Several hours after the attack, an Israeli air strike killed two men riding a motorcycle in the northern Gaza Strip near the Israeli border. The Islamic Jihad militant group said the men were members who were conducting a "reconnaissance" mission. Military officials said the incident was not connected to the earlier infiltration from Egypt.

Israeli security officials have grown increasingly anxious about the security situation in Sinai since the fall of Mubarak. Continued political turmoil in Egypt, weak policing in Sinai and tough terrain have encouraged Islamic militant activity in the area. The mountainous desert harbours an array of militant groups, including Palestinian extremists and al-Qaida-inspired jihadists, Egyptian and Israeli security officials say. The tumultuous situation surrounding Egyptian elections, in which Islamist groups made a strong showing, has added to Israeli unease.

The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, told army radio there had been "a worrisome deterioration of Egyptian control" over the Sinai. Barak said he expected the winner of this week's presidential elections in Egypt to honour the country's international obligations – an apparent reference to Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel. The Muslim Brotherhood has said it will respect the historic peace accord but will also seek modifications.

The Israeli vice-premier, Shaul Mofaz, a former defence minister and military chief, said he hoped Israel could conduct a security dialogue with the Egyptians and demand more forceful policing in Sinai.

"No doubt Sinai has become a security problem," Mofaz told army radio. "Today's incident ratchets it up a notch."

There was no immediate comment from Egypt on the attack.

Following Mubarak's fall, Israel stepped up construction of a security fence across the 150-mile (230km) border with Egypt in a bid to keep out both militants and illegal migrants from Africa. The government has said it expects the fence to be completed by the end of the year.

In Monday's attack, two civilian vehicles carrying construction workers were driving towards the security fence when militants activated a roadside bomb and opened fire with light arms and anti-tank weapons, said Leibovich, the military spokeswoman.

One of the vehicles was struck and turned over into a nearby ditch, killing one worker, she said. Israeli troops rushed to the area and engaged in a gun battle with the militants. One militant, who was carrying a large explosive device, blew up, she said. Another militant, and possibly two others, also died, but other gunmen may have escaped back into Egypt, she said.

The militants were carrying camouflage uniforms, flak jackets, helmets and assault rifles, she said. There was no word on their identities or membership of any of a wide range of armed groups.

Israel had been bracing for the possibility of more attacks from Sinai after two rockets believed to have been fired from there struck southern Israel over the weekend, though Leibovich said it was unclear whether the two events were related.

The magnitude of the growing threat from Sinai was driven home last August, when gunmen from Sinai infiltrated Israel and ambushed vehicles on a desert highway, killing eight Israelis. Six Egyptians were killed in Israel's subsequent hunt for the militants, causing a diplomatic crisis between the two neighbours that ended with an Israeli apology.

The deadly August attack shattered decades of calm along the frontier area, prompting officials on both sides of the border to examine security arrangements and pushing Israel to speed up construction of the border fence.

As part of its landmark first peace treaty with an Arab state, Israel agreed in 1979 to return the Sinai, captured in the 1967 six-day war, to Egypt, but insisted the vast desert triangle separating Asia from Africa be significantly demilitarised. As the frontier area grew more volatile following Mubarak's fall, Israel allowed thousands more Egyptian troops to police the area and has beefed up its own military deployment along the border.

The reinforced security deployment has not quietened Sinai, however, and democratic elections for parliament and president did not resolve the instability in Egypt, which has Israel worried about the future of the 1979 peace accord.

The ruling Egyptian military has dissolved the newly elected parliament and assumed sweeping powers subordinating the president and ensuring their hold on the state. The Muslim Brotherhood, which declared on Monday that its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, had won this week's presidential election, has challenged the military's power grab, raising the prospect of a power struggle between Egypt's two strongest forces.