2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks

2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks
Part of Sinai insurgency and the Gaza–Israel conflict
class=notpageimage| Site of the attacks
Location	Near the Ein Netafim spring, on Highway 12, Southern Israel
Coordinates	29°35′9″N 34°52′53″E / 29.58583°N 34.88139°E / 29.58583; 34.88139
Date	August 18, 2011; 12 years ago (2011-08-18)
Attack type	Spree killing, shooting attack, bombings, rocket attack, suicide bombing,[1] firefight[2]
Weapons	AK-47 rifles, RPGs, anti-tank missile, roadside bomb
Deaths	6 Israeli civilians, 1 Israeli soldier, 1 Israeli Yamam policeman, 5 Egyptian soldiers, 10 attackers[2]
Injured	40 Israelis[3]
Perpetrators	Israel has stated that the attacks were orchestrated by the Gaza based Popular Resistance Committees, who deny involvement.[4] Egyptian sources report that three of the attackers were Sinai-based Egyptians.[2][5]
No. of participants	Presumably 12 assailants

On August 18, 2011, a series of cross-border attacks with parallel attacks and mutual cover was carried out in southern Israel on Highway 12 near the Egyptian border by a squad of presumably twelve militants in four groups.^[2] The attacks occurred after Israel's interior security service Shin Bet had warned of an attack by militants in the region and Israeli troops had been stationed in the area.^[6] The militants first opened fire at an Egged No. 392 bus as it was traveling on Highway 12 in the Negev near Eilat.^[3][7] Several minutes later, a bomb was detonated next to an Israeli army patrol along Israel's border with Egypt. In a third attack, an anti-tank missile hit a private vehicle, killing four civilians.^[8] Eight Israelis – six civilians, one Yamam special unit police sniper and one Golani Brigade soldier—were killed in the multiple-stage attack.^[9][10] The Israel Defense Forces reported eight attackers killed, and Egyptian security forces reported killing another two.^[2]

Five Egyptian soldiers were also killed. According to Egypt, they were killed by Israeli security forces chasing militants across the Egyptian border, while an Israeli military officer initially said they were killed by a suicide bomber who had fled across the border into Egypt.^[11] The five deaths triggered a diplomatic row between Egypt and Israel and led to mass protests outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo. According to media reports, Egypt threatened to withdraw its ambassador to Israel, but Egypt's foreign minister later denied this.^[2] Israel expressed regret over the deaths, and sent a letter of apology to Egypt.^[12] The IDF was ordered to conduct a military probe of the incident,^[13][14] and on August 25, 2011, Israel agreed to a joint investigation with Egypt of the events.^[15]

The identity of the attackers, three of whom were reportedly Egyptian,^[16] is not widely agreed upon,^[17] and so far no group took responsibility for the attacks. The Israeli government accused the Palestinian Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a Gaza-based coalition of Palestinian militant groups, of orchestrating the attacks,^[18] but the PRC denied involvement.^[19] However, Israel attacked seven targets in the Gaza Strip immediately after the terror attacks in the Negev, killing five members of the PRC, including its leader.^[20]

On August 21, 2011, an informal ceasefire was called by Israel and Hamas after days of escalating violence in which fifteen Palestinians were killed and many were wounded. More than 100 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza into Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding more than a dozen.^[21] The ceasefire was broken almost immediately by rocket fire from Gaza on southern Israel, followed by retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, killing at least seven Palestinians, among them two leaders of the Islamic Jihad. On August 26, 2011, Gaza militants called a second truce.^[22] On March 9, 2012, Israel Air Force, in a strike on Palestinian targets in Gaza, killed the secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees, Zuhir al-Qaisi, whom Israel considers as "one of the masterminds" of the August 18, 2011 attacks.^[23]