There is initial news of an attack on an Eged Bus near Eilat on HWY 12 running close to the Egyptian border. The shooting was by three gunmen who stormed the bus as it was making its way 28 KM north of Eilat. There are apparently 4 injured on the bus that continued without stopping. Emergency crews are on the scene.
= UPDATED =
On Thursday shots were fired at an Egged bus on Route 12, connecting Mitzpe Ramon to Eilat.
The bus, line 392, was fired upon by a long-barreled hand gun from a vehicle.
The terrorists escaped in the direction of the Egyptian border.
Eilat sub-district police set up road blocks throughout the entire area, including at the entrance to Eilat, as part of police efforts to assist the IDF in capturing the gunmen.
It remains unclear whether the shots were fired from Egypt or whether gunmen had infiltrated the border.
The terrorists either came from Egypt or Gaza, firing across the border, or the gunmen had crossed into Israel.
While the government has been working on completing a border barrier along the Sinai peninsula, it has yet to be finished.
Soon after the shooting, multiple roadside bombs were used against IDF forces patrolling the Israel Egypt border fence.
Then at around 1pm rockets were fired at IDF vehicles near the border.
Casualties were reported in all incidents.
Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee’s sub-committee on foreign operations is promoting a bill which intends to suspend U.S. assistance to three units in the Israeli Defense Forces on grounds they are guilty of human rights abuses in Judea, Samaria.
Leahy Blues
Leahy’s legislation will seek to withhold assistance from the Israeli Navy’s Shayetet 13 unit, the undercover Duvdevan unit and the Israeli Air Force’s Shaldag unit.
Leahy began pushing the bill recently after allegedly being approached by pro-Palestinian constituents in his home state of Vermont. Yet more recently, another pro-Palestinian activist group protested in front of Leahy’s office demanding that he condemnd Shayetet 13 for killing nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara.
Other News
Glenn Beck will be in Jerusalem for the “Restoring Courage” rally starting on August 24th.
The roughly 600 tickets for the event at Jerusalem’s Davidson Center are sold out, but the event will be broadcasted in Israel and internationally.
Despite being a self-proclaimed, ardent Zionist, Beck dismissed the recent youth protests in Israel about high taxes come “from the far left” and evidence the protesters “hate the rich.” He added, “That worked out well for the Soviets…”
He also said, “I wonder if there’s any financing behind [the protests] … look to see if there’s any leftist global financing in Tel Aviv…And don’t look to see if there’s any Islamist group that’s joining them…Well, the National Socialists [Nazis] got together with [Islamists] but that’s completely … OK, the communists and the Islamists got together, but that’s completely isolated … well, it’s happening in Egypt and in Libya, but there’s nothing to look into there.” He continued, “Why even look if there is any leftist global financing involved?…Do not look to see if there is any Islamist movement that is joining them.”
August 18, 2011 at 7:18 pm
I am from vancouver,canada and i wanted to say that while the people of Gaza are been held in a state of seige by the israeli gov.buses from israel will be attacked.Gaza is like what the Warsaw Getto use to be like during the second world war.There will be no peace in israel until the apartheid israeli gov.is overthrown.The majority of the people in the world knows that and they supports the struggle of the Palestinian People.