Israeli troops on Friday shot dead three heavily armed gunmen who sneaked across the Egyptian border and ambushed soldiers, averting “a very big terror attack,” a military spokeswoman said.
One Israeli soldier was also injured in the stomach during the incident and taken to a hospital in the southern city of Beersheva, medical officials said.
The incident took place on the Israeli side of the frontier at a place called Har Harif which is almost half-way down Israel’s 240-kilometre (150-mile) border with Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.
“Three armed terrorist entered from the Sinai into Israel,” army spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovich told reporters.
“They opened fire toward IDF (army) troops that were guarding the workers (building the fence) in that area. Another force that was nearby … rushed to the area and targeted those three terrorists,” she said.
“All three terrorists were killed.”
She said the gunmen were “very well armed and prepared” in terms of equipment. At least one was wearing an explosives belt, the army said.
“A very big terror attack was thwarted by the quick response of these soldiers,” Leibovich said, ruling out the possibility that any further gunmen had infiltrated Israeli territory.
The injured soldier was airlifted to Soroka hospital in Beersheva. “One soldier is in moderate to serious condition with a stomach injury,” hospital spokeswoman Inbar Gutter told AFP.
In Egypt, a security source and witnesses reported hearing an explosion followed by heavy gunfire.
