JERUSALEM - Gunmen who crossed into Israel from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula killed a worker assigned to build a border fence early Monday. Two of the assailants died in a clash with soldiers who responded to the incident, the Israeli army said.
The attack some 20 miles south of the Gaza Strip, near the border community of Nitzana, underscored Israeli concerns about worsening security conditions in Sinai, where government control has weakened since the Egyptian revolution last year.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the incident, along with the launching of two rockets at southern Israel over the weekend, indicated "a disturbing deterioration in Egyptian control of security in the Sinai."
He said Israel expected the winner of last weekend's presidential election in Egypt "to take responsibility for all of Egypt's international commitments, including the peace treaty with Israel and the security arrangements in the Sinai, and to swiftly put an end to these attacks."
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Egyptian Gen. Abdelwahab Mabrouk, the governor of North Sinai, the border province where the attack was allegedly launched, expressed doubt about the veracity of the reports.
"Sinai is secure and under control on our side," he said, according to a statement carried by the state-run Middle East News Agency. "Any intruders are arrested immediately."
According to Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitz, an Israeli army spokeswoman, the incident started at about 6 a.m., when three gunmen attacked two vehicles carrying laborers who had arrived to work on the border fence. The gunmen targeted the vehicles with an explosive charge, rifle fire and a rocket-propelled grenade, Leibovitz said.
A vehicle hit by the explosive and gunfire overturned into a ditch, killing one worker, who was later identified as an Israeli Arab. No other workers were injured.
Israeli troops on border patrol arrived minutes after the attack and traded fire with the assailants, two of whom were killed when a large quantity of explosives carried by one of them detonated. Leibovitz said a third attacker fled back to the Egyptian side of the border, where other members of the attack squad allegedly remained. No soldiers were hurt.
The workers are employed by one of the companies contracted by the Israeli Defense Ministry to construct the 140-mile long border barrier of steel mesh and razor wire. The fence is still under construction, and the attackers crossed in an area where it is not yet complete.
