Militants first opened fire at a civilian Egged No. 392 bus carrying both civilians and soldiers to their hometown of Eilat for the weekend as it was traveling on Highway 12 near Eilat. Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In another attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians. At least eight Israelis, including six civilians, a soldier from the Golani Brigade and a Yamam officer, were killed in the multiple-stage attack.
The attacks were praised by Palestinian militant groups Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and Tawhid wal-Jihad. No group took responsibility, but analysts pointed to the PRC and to Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Background
The southern part of Highway 12 runs adjacent to Israel's border with Egypt. It was the scene of previous shooting attacks in the 1990s.[citation needed] In the late 2000s, the Israeli government decided to build the Israel–Egypt barrier, although by 2011 only 10% of it had been completed, none close to the site of the attack.
Two days prior to the attack, the Egyptian army captured four Islamist terrorists as they prepared to blow up a gas pipeline in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
On August 14, 2011, just days before the attack, Egyptian forces swept the Sinai Peninsula in search of terror cells. Israeli intelligence, supported by their Jordanian counterparts, had information about an impending terror attack in the south of the country. Israeli special forces, including elite counter-terror forces, were therefore already stationed in the area.
Attacks
Egypt-Israel border north of Eilat near where the attacks took place. Sinai is on the left, Israel on the right.
The original attacks occurred in three coordinated stages. The attacks commenced around 12:00 pm (GMT+2) when three armed militants with suicide bomb vests, grenades, RPGs, and machine guns opened fire on a bus, then went northwards and opened fire on a civilian vehicle and a Egged passenger bus on line 392, carrying civilians and soldiers, near the Ein Netafim spring, on Highway 12 from Mitzpe Ramon to Eilat. The militants then spread out about 200 meters from one another and began attacking passing vehicles.
Read more »
