Shots fired at bus along Egypt border; no injuries

Shots were fired on Sunday at a bus carrying soldiers along the border with Egypt.

No one was injured but several rounds hit the vehicle.

The bus was traveling on Road 10, which runs along the border. The IDF said that the shots originated in the Sinai Peninsula. Soldiers were quickly brought to the scene near Mount Sagi and carried out searches to rule out the possibility that terrorists had infiltrated Israel.

Several hours earlier, terrorists in Sinai bombed a pipeline built to carry natural gas to Israel and Jordan for the 15th time since the start of the uprising in early 2011 that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

The blast took place early on Sunday morning at al-Tuwail, east of the Sinai town of El- Arish, at a point before the pipeline splits into separate branches to Israel and Jordan, security officials said.

Gunmen in a small truck drove up to the pipeline, dug a hole and placed explosive charges under the pipeline that they detonated from a distance, a security official and witnesses said.

Egyptian natural gas stopped flowing to Israel in April, after a previous bombing of the pipeline. The 20-year gas deal, signed in the Mubarak era, was unpopular with many Egyptians, with critics accusing Israel of not paying enough for the fuel.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the installation that crosses the increasingly volatile peninsula.

Israel is, however, concerned with Egypt’s lack control over Sinai and the growing terrorist presence there.

On June 18, terrorists crossed into Israel from Sinai and killed an Israeli contractor working on the border fence. The IDF said that it plans to complete construction of the border fence by the end of the year.

Reuters contributed to this report.