Two Israeli soldiers wounded in cross-border attack from Egypt

Two Israeli soldiers were injured Wednesday in a shooting along the border with Egypt, Israel’s military reported.

According to preliminary information offered by army officials, shots and an anti-tank missile were fired at an Israeli military vehicle from the Egyptian side of the border. A company commander and a soldier were airlifted to Soroka Medical Center with moderate-to-serious injuries, officials said.

The troops belong to the Caracal battalion, the army’s flagship mixed-gender combat unit assigned largely to Israel’s southern desert areas. The wounded commander is a woman.

Additional troops were called to search the area and rule out an infiltration or breach of the border, and residents in surrounding communities were ordered to stay in their homes until the situation settled. The attack took place near the Israeli community of Ezuz.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the shooting, but media reports said that Egyptian security sources pointed a finger at Ansar Bayt al Maqdis, a Sinai Peninsula-based Islamic militant group described as an Al Qaeda offshoot and supporter of the Islamic State.

Seven suspected members of the organization were sentenced to death in a Cairo court Tuesday for a series of attacks this year against Egyptian army personnel in and near Cairo. Egyptian authorities are engaged in a fierce campaign against the militant group, which also has staged armed attacks in the Sinai.

Israeli media reported that authorities were also looking into the possibility that the incident was related to cross-border drug smuggling taking place in the remote desert area along Israel’s border with the Sinai.

Sobelman is a special correspondent.