Israeli soldier, three gunmen killed in Egypt border attack

An Israeli soldier and three militants who infiltrated from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula were killed in a clash along the border on Friday, the army said. It said troops came under fire from gunmen who sneaked across the border, sparking a firefight which killed the three attackers. An Israeli soldier was also killed and a second moderately injured, a military spokeswoman said, confirming a report from Egyptian security sources in the Sinai.
"I can confirm he is dead," she said, without confirming Egyptian reports that one of the attackers had blown himself up. An Israeli military statement named the soldier as gunner Netanael Yahlomi, 20, and said he was "killed by terrorist gunfire." It added that he was promoted posthumously to the rank of corporal.
Friday's deadly ambush was the latest in a string of attempts by militants to sneak across the border and attack Israelis, with an army spokeswoman saying that quick action by its troops had foiled "a very big terror attack." 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 the Sinai. "Three armed terrorists 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 border fence) in that area. Another force that was nearby... rushed to the area and targeted those three terrorists," she said.