Last update - 00:00 24/07/2007
Egyptian police fire at Sudanese men trying to infiltrate Israel
By Reuters
Egyptian police opened fire on two Sudanese refugees trying to illegally enter Israel from Egypt, security sources said Tuesday.
A security source said the men, accompanied by traffickers smuggling them across the border, were trying to cross into Israel south of the Rafah border crossing on Monday when they were spotted by border guards.
One of the traffickers opened fire at the police, and in the ensuing exchange of fire, one of the Sudanese men, Osama Moussa Abqar, 33, was injured, the security source said.
Abqar was being treated in a hospital in North Sinai, while the other man, Nagy Mohamed Abqar, 28, was detained, the source added.
The shooting is the third incident in less than a month involving African migrants on the border with Israel, and it came amid stepped up Egyptian efforts to block a surge of migrants from entering Israel.
On Sunday, Egyptian police shot at a group of African refugees trying to enter Israel illegally, killing one woman and wounding four, including one child.
Last month, Egyptian authorities arrested 106 Sudanese refugees trying to cross into Israel.
The migrants are drawn to Israel by reports of better living conditions and hopes of gaining asylum there, but are also keen to leave Egypt where activists say they face persistent racism, abuse and economic marginalization.
The Sinai Peninsula has long been host to Bedouin smuggling rings who will take people, weapons, or contraband across the Egyptian frontier into Israel or the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli government has maintained it would deport refugees entering Israel illegally.