Egyptian police shoot Darfurian, detain 8 trying to cross into Israel

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Egyptian authorities shot and critically wounded a Darfurian man trying to sneak into Israel for work and detained eight other Africans in a pair of incidents Saturday, a security and hospital officials said. In one incident, seven kilometers south of the Rafah crossing point, border guards opened fire at a group of three Sudanese, which included a woman, after they ignored shots fired into the air, said a security official, speaking on condition of customary condition of anonymity. Zakariya Moussa Abdullah, 24, was shot in the back and remains in critical condition at the El-Arish hospital after an operation to remove the bullet, said Imad Kharboush, head of the North Sinai's emergency unit. Abdullah told The Associated Press from his hospital bed that he had run in fear upon first hearing the guards' warning shots, adding that he had hoped to find work in Israel.