Bedouin fatally shot near Egyptian border with Israel

An Egyptian Bedouin was fatally shot early Thursday near the country's border with Israel, an Egyptian security official and witnesses said.

According to one eyewitness, the man was shot by an Israeli border guard.

However, security officials wouldn't confirm where the shooting came from, saying only that a random bullet from the other side may have killed the man unintentionally.

The Bedouin was identified as Hamdan Sulieman Attaya, 45, a government employee.

Attaya was shot while standing in front of his house at el-Dahniya village, just 300 meters from the Israel controlled border point of Kerem Shalom, the Egyptian official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Attaya's neighbor, Emad Sulieman, 27, said he heard women screaming and saw gunfire coming from an Israeli observation tower on the border.

"I myself was hiding from the bullets, he said. We rushed him to the hospital but he died in the middle of the road, Sulieman said."

Attaya's cousin, Moussa Abu Fereh said the family was preparing for his funeral and that Attaya was a martyr like those killed in Gaza by Israeli gunfire.

Shortly after the shooting, Attaya's body was taken to the hospital in the Egyptian town of Rafah on the nearby Egypt-Gaza border, the security official, adding that intelligence and security services are investigating the shooting.

The Bedouin shooting came as Israeli aircraft struck two targets in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including the home of a senior Palestinian militant killed by Israeli troops last month, according to Palestinian officials.

Located on the Israeli-Egyptian border, the Kerem Shalom crossing is different - but only a few kilometers (miles) away - from the Rafah crossing that is Gaza's only gateway to the world, straddling the boundary between the Palestinian strip and Egypt.