1 hurt as Egypt fires on Sudanese infiltrators

Four men manage to illegally cross into Israel just south of the Rafah border crossing.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Sudanese atBorder 248.88 (photo credit: Channel 10 [file])
Sudanese atBorder 248.88
(photo credit: Channel 10 [file])
Egyptian border guards opened fire Monday and wounded a Sudanese man who was part of a group of five men trying to illegally cross into Israel just south of the Rafah border crossing point, a security official said. The four other Sudanese managed to get into Israel, the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity as he was not allowed to talk to the media. Monday's shooting is the latest in a series of similar cross-border incidents. The security official said the Sudanese group ignored warning shots initially fired into the air and managed to cut through the barbed wire south of Rafah. Chief physician Imad Kharboush at a North Sinai emergency unit said the wounded Sudanese, who has been identified as Abdullah Shukar Abdullah, 23, was undergoing surgery at El-Arish general hospital for a bullet wound to the stomach. Abdullah, from Khartoum, reportedly told police that each of the five paid $500 to a smuggler to take them to the border area to cross into Israel where they were hoping to find work, the official said. The four who got into Israel were allegedly from Sudan's troubled western Darfur region, he added. Dozens of African migrants have been detained over the past year as they tried to cross into Israel from the Sinai desert, and seven have been killed this year by Egyptian border guards. The Africans began trickling into Israel in 2005, after neighboring Egypt quashed a demonstration by a group of Sudanese refugees and in recent months, the number has surged as word spread of job opportunities in Israel. Israel last year asked Egypt to do more to stem the tide. UN officials have said that more than 7,000 African migrants have entered Israel illegally in just over a year, including at least 2,000 since January.