Israeli goes on highest terror alert after a string of terrorist attacks still ongoing near the Israeli-Egyptian border north of Eilat Thursday, Aug. 18 left dozens of Israeli military and civilian casualties, including several fatalities and five soldiers in critical condition. Twenty-five injured victims have been admitted to Josephtal hospital in Eilat and more are on the way. Assailants who may have crossed in from Sinai used automatic, anti-tank weapons, mortars and roadside bombs for separate attacks on two buses and civilian and military vehicles on Highway 12 near the Israeli-Egyptian Sinai border.

Two of the three gunmen who attacked the bus were killed in a firefight with the Israeli police force. All the highways to Eilat are closed to traffic.

debkafile reported earlier: A special police force located the gunmen who shot up two Israeli buses north of Eilat, Israel's southern most town and port, and are engaged in a firefight. Casualties are reported.

The gunmen first attacked an Israeli Egged bus north of Eilat, injuring at least six passengers Thursday morning. The 392 bus carrying mostly soldiers on leave from Beersheba to Eilat came under automatic fire on Highway 12 as it passed the Netafim checkpoint on the Israeli-Egyptian border of Sinai. The attackers jumped out of a private vehicle which had driven behind the bus. The second bus and other passing vehicles were attacked with an anti-tank weapon. An army vehicle was then blown up by a roadside bomb and another came under fire.
debkafile's military sources: This week the Egyptian army launched a major counter-terror operation against Islamists terrorizing the peninsula and its borderlands. The multiple terrorist attack in Israel may have been in reprisal for the Egyptian crackdown.