This is just the latest example of the wanton mass murder that the opponents of Israel tacitly support and abet with their relentless demonization of the Jewish State, and harsh criticism of any and all attempts by Israelis to defend themselves. “Gunmen kill six in Israel in attack near Egypt border,” by Jeffrey Heller for Reuters, August 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Gunmen killed six people in attacks on vehicles in southern Israel Thursday and a senior Israeli official said they had infiltrated from the Gaza Strip through Egypt’s Sinai desert.
Israel’s military said the incident began when “terrorists shot at a bus on its way to (the city of) Eilat and then fired an anti-tank rocket at another vehicle. At the same time, a military patrol hit an explosive device.”
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said six people were killed along the road, just meters from the porous border with Egypt. The military put the number of wounded at around 25.
Israeli special forces were called in and engaged the gunmen as police and military closed roads around Eilat, a popular Red Sea resort.
The military said between two and four gunmen were killed. Israeli media reports said up to seven attackers were killed.
“It was a grave terrorist incident that took place in several locations,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement. “It reflects the weakening of Egypt’s hold in the Sinai and the broadening of activities by terror elements.”
Calling the Gaza Strip, Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas Islamists and bordering the Sinai and Israel, “the source of terrorist activities,” Barak said: “We will act against them with full force and determination.”
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel “has specific and precise information that these terrorists who targeted Israelis today came out of the Gaza Strip.”
A senior Israeli official said the gunmen, unable to cross into Israel through the heavily patrolled border with the Gaza Strip, had gone into the Sinai and then infiltrated from there into southern Israel.
Israeli officials have voiced concern that militant groups in the Sinai have been making use of a security vacuum left by the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
The Israeli shekel fell against the dollar and stocks dipped Thursday.
“I saw two men in fatigues shooting at me,” the bus driver, Benny Bilbaski, told Israel Radio. “I saw that there were wounded on the bus but I continued to drive on, looking straight not looking right or left. Once I got a kilometer past the area and I was out of range we took care of the wounded.”…