Deadly attacks in southern Israel

18 August 2011 Last updated at 08:12 ET

At least five people have been killed in a series of attacks on vehicles in southern Israel, Israeli medics say.

The attacks began when gunmen fired at an Israeli bus that was travelling near the Egyptian border.

Several gunmen ambushed the civilian bus, with security forces later going in pursuit of the attackers.

This is the first major attack on Israel’s border with Egypt for several years, reports the BBC’s Paul Danahar in Jerusalem.

So far, the Israeli military has only confirmed that four soldiers have been “moderately injured and one soldier lightly injured”.

Israeli army spokeswoman Col Avital Leibowitz told the BBC it had been a combined attack by Gaza militants who had infiltrated Israel, adding that the exchange of fire was continuing.

Col Leibowitz said all of the wounded – 10 of them – had been evacuated to hospital.

Road attack

The Israeli authorities say the first attack took place on bus 392 carrying passengers between the Israeli town of Beersheba and the coastal resort city of Eilat, about 20km (12 miles) north of Eilat.

Reports say two or three men climbed out of a car as the bus travelled on route 12 next to the Egypt-Israel border and opened fire on it.

The bus driver carried on until he reached a nearby military base where the wounded received treatment before being flown to a hospital in Eilat.

No-one was killed in this incident, but shortly afterwards an explosion appears to have hit a second bus nearby and there the injuries were much more serious.

Both attacks are believed to have been carried out by the same gunmen, who were then involved in a firefight with the Israeli security forces near the border.

Most people on the commercial Egged bus were tourists, although there are reports that some soldiers were also on board.

A passenger on board the first bus describes the attack: “I was just talking to a guy sitting next to me and we suddenly heard shots, and we immediately bent over and that’s it, pieces of glass were flying, and we realised some people were injured.”

It was earlier reported that an explosion had taken place in the southern city of Beersheba, but Israeli radio later retracted that report.

— ’re ’s , . : A ‘Malign Intellectual Subculture’ – George Monbiot Smears Chomsky, Herman, Peterson, Pilger And Media Lens.