IDF: Egyptian Beduin behind August attack

Terrorists killed eight Israelis in coordinated assault, launched attacked from cover of nearby Egyptian military post.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Bombed out Egged bus terrorism terror attack 311 (R) 2 (photo credit: Israel Defense Forces)
Bombed out Egged bus terrorism terror attack 311 (R) 2
(photo credit: Israel Defense Forces)
The IDF has concluded that the terrorists who carried out the attack against Israel along the Egyptian border in August were all Beduin from Sinai, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The attack took on place August 18, when several terrorists in Sinai opened fire at Israeli cars traveling on Road 12, just west of the Netafim crossing. Eight Israelis were killed in the attack and the road has been closed since.
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While the cell that carried out the attack is believed to have numbered 20 terrorists, most remained inside Egypt, launching their attack from the cover of a nearby Egyptian military post.
Three of the terrorists killed in Israel were wearing explosive suicide bomb belts and one blew himself up next to an empty bus, killing its driver, Yitzhak Sela. Another attacker was run over by a Golani Brigade jeep and the third was shot and killed in a gunfight.
Israel immediately responded to the attack by bombing the Gaza Strip and killing five top leaders of the Popular Resistance Committees, a Gaza-based terror group, which it accused of orchestrating the attacks.
The question of why Beduin would participate in such an attack against Israel and on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza is under review in the IDF. One theory is that the Beduin were paid for their involvement, but the decision to wear suicide bomb belts indicates a strong ideological or religious factor as well.