(JTA) — One Israeli soldier and three armed assailants died in a skirmish near the border with Egypt.
Army Radio reported that the assailants opened fire on Israeli soldiers Friday morning while they were patrolling the border with Egypt.
Another Israeli soldier who was hit sustained medium injuries, according to the report, which was confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces.
One of the dead assailants had a suicide bomb belt around him, the IDF said, describing the three as terrorists.
"The IDF stopped a very big terrorist attack," IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai said.
The incident, according to the report, happened near the Har Charif bulge, some 30 miles southwest of Mitzpe Ramon.
Last month, an Israel Air Force aircraft fired a missile on an armored personnel carrier that a team of terrorists had stolen from an Egyptian army base and driven across the border. The terrorists killed 16 Egyptian troops in the takeover. In June, terrorists launched an anti-tank missile at a convoy of construction workers building the border fence along the Israel-Egypt frontier. One Israeli civilian and two terrorists were killed in the attack.
During the past few months, terrorists in Sinai launched rockets at Eilat and the border region on a number of occasions, but no Israelis were injured.
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