By Phoebe Greenwood in Tel Aviv and Richard Spencer
8:08AM BST 19 Aug 2011
At least six Palestinians were killed in the first wave of bombing. Israel said they were members, including the leader, of the militant group known as the Popular Resistance Committees it accused of responsibility for the attacks.
A spokesman for the group pledged to revenge the loss of its men and did not deny responsibility, but Hamas, which runs Gaza, said that two children were also killed in the air raids, one aged three and one aged 13.
The Israeli bombing continued into the morning, targeting smuggling tunnels and other sites allegedly used by terrorists to smuggle men and arms between Gaza and Egypt. The Israeli authorities said those responsible for yesterday's attacks, in which six civilians and a soldier died, infiltrated Israel from Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
They said a policeman had also been killed in a subsequent attack.
In retaliation for the bombing raids, militant groups have also struck back, firing at least ten rockets into Israel from Gaza. One hit the port of Ashdod to the north, injuring six people, one seriously.
The Egyptian authorities said three people, a policeman and two soldiers, were killed in crossfire on their side of the border as Israeli forces including a jet pursued the attackers back into Sinai.
The attacks yesterday were the worst against Israel for more than three years.
In the first, a bus carrying both civilians and soldiers from Beersheba to the tourist resort of Eilat came under heavy gunfire as it travelled along Highway 12, close to the Egyptian border.
Then, three terrorists disguised as members of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) opened fire on a second bus, using rifles and rocket propelled grenades.
Meanwhile, a vehicle carrying genuine Israeli Defence Force (IDF) members attempting to respond to the first incident hit a roadside bomb. Several soldiers were injured in the explosion.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said the assaults were "extremely serious and violated Israel's sovereignty".
"I have laid down a principle: if you harm Israel, we will respond immediately and very strongly," he said. "The people who ordered the killing of our citizens are no longer alive."
The authorities claimed the attack squads had travelled from Gaza into Egypt and from there recrossed the lightly manned desert border from the Sinai peninsula.
"What we know for a fact is that the attack was organized by a terror squad that infiltrated Israel from Gaza. We know this form our intelligence information and from the soldiers currently engaged in gunfire with the terrorists," a spokeswoman, Lt Col Avital Leibovich, told The Daily Telegraph.
Eye-witnesses gave dramatic accounts of the attack, the first serious cross-border incident since the fall of Israel's important ally, President Hosni Mubarak, in February.
One passenger who identified herself as Anastasia, told Israeli army radio: "Suddenly bullets were flying into the bus from everywhere. We all got down on the floor.
"There were some soldiers traveling on the bus and they pointed their guns out of the window, aiming at where the fire was coming from. It was horrible."
A man who had been driving towards Eilat described seeing a missile flying overhead. He said he stopped his car and got out to signal a warning to other drivers. As he was standing beside the road, another missile narrowly missed his car with his young daughter inside.
The Israeli army's 80th Division then fought a running battle with the attackers, shooting a number of them and killing seven. They found an explosive device strapped to one of the bodies.
Mortar shells were also fired from the Gaza strip at Israeli soldiers carrying out maintenance work on the security fence that separates Israel and Egypt. Israeli troops immediately sealed off the area.
Lt Col Leibovich said army intelligence could not yet confirm any connection with the attacks to a recent spike in militant activity in the Sinai.
However, militant groups have taken advantage of the weakened security situation since Mr Mubarak's fall to establish themselves in the area, sometimes in alliance with local Bedouin tribes. Fliers have been distributed announcing the formation of "Al-Qaeda in the Egyptian Sinai".
At the end of July, dozens of armed men attacked a police station in El-Arish, a coastal city, killing one police officer. In response to this and attacks on pipelines carrying gas from Egypt to Jordan and Israel, the Egyptian military launched Operation Eagle earlier this week against the groups.
More than twenty men were arrested in raids in the El-Arish area, including several Palestinians from Gaza. Egyptian military sources say they discovered an arsenal of explosives, anti-aircraft missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and tank mines.
Speaking after the attacks yesterday, the defence minister Ehud Barak, said: "The event reflects the weakening of the Egyptian hold on Sinai and the expansion of terrorist action in the area".
Boaz Ganor, head of the Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Tel Aviv, added that there were known to be strong links between Islamic militant groups in Sinai and Gaza.
"While the IDF say the operation was coordinated in Gaza, there is no doubt in my mind that there was operational support if not coordination with Al Qaeda in the Egyptian Sinai," he said. "This is the same group of people."
It is unclear what, if any, physical links they have with Al-Qaeda's most successful franchises in Pakistan and Yemen. But there are an estimated 10,000 Islamists from the radical Salafi movement operating within several distinct militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
Many of these activists were former supporters of Hamas who oppose the current ceasefire with Israel.
Hamas itself denied any part in the attacks. Taher Al-Nounou, a spokesman, said: "The Israeli accusation against Gaza is an attempt to export Israel's internal crisis to Gaza."
There is a precedent for Palestinian terrorists from Gaza entering Israel from Egypt. In 2007, Mohammed al-Saqsaq, a 21-year-old from Gaza, killed three people in a bakery in Eilat having crossed from the Sinai.
Eilat is a popular resort, including with Britons, and was said to be in a state of panic last night. The city is packed for the summer, and hosting its annual Jazz festival next week.
"More than 22,000 British tourists come to Eilat every year," a tourism ministry spokesman, Shirah Kaveh said, insisting it was still safe. "The attack wasn't directed at tourists."
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