UPDATE: 8 Dead in Israel, Dozens Wounded
Rumors Are That Israel Has Fired Into Egypt
Not Israel, but "Gunmen"?

Some updates:

Eight victims are dead in the series of terrorist attacks that struck southern Israel today, at least six of them civilians. Over a dozen more were injured.

Israel blamed an armed Palestinian group from neighboring Gaza. Israeli forces killed five of the gunmen along the border with Egypt, the military said, and later launched an airstrike inside Gaza that killed five other militants from the same group as well as a child.

The Israeli military said three of the dead men in Gaza had been involved in planning the attack.

Gunfire continued on both sides of the border late into the evening. After nightfall, Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-missile system intercepted a rocket fired by Gaza militants at the city of Ashkelon, the military said.

Details on the Israeli airstrike are here.

The blog Israel Matzav has information on the victims.

There are rampant rumors on Twitter that Israel has killed two Egyptian soldiers in an airstrike on the Egyptian side of the border, but the media hasn't reported it yet and there's no confirmation from Israeli or Egyptian forces. The Egyptian situation in Sinai is tense.

An Al Jazeera English producer who was very accurate during the Egyptian uprising tweets that two Egyptian conscripts are dead at the border, but that he can't get any confirmation that it was the Israelis that did the killing.

I'll update if there's more. Keep in mind this remains a developing situation, so initial reports may be revised substantially as information changes.

Update: Not Israel? Al Arabiya News tweets:

Gunmen shot dead two Egyptian border guards, leaving a third wounded, near the border with #Israel.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 05:25 PM

| Access Comments