Reporting from Jerusalem— Gunmen near the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat launched coordinated attacks Thursday against three civilian and military targets, killing at least seven people and wounding 40 more, Israeli military officials said. The attacks shattered a period of relative calm along Israel's border with Egypt and heightened concerns about growing instability in Egypt's largely lawless Sinai Peninsula. Israelis are also worried about a possible resumption in terrorist attacks as Palestinians prepare to push for statehood recognition from the United Nations next month.
Though no group immediately claimed responsibility for the strikes, Israeli officials said they suspect militants from the Gaza Strip, who infiltrated the Israeli border, possibly via Egypt.
In one incident, gunmen in a car opened fire on a public bus carrying soldiers on leave as it drove south from Beersheba to Eilat on a highway near the Israel-Egypt border, injuring nine people.
Shortly after the initial strike, two private cars and another bus, also traveling south, were struck by gunfire and an anti-tank missile nearby, the military said.
The third attack involved a roadside bomb apparently set to explode next to Israeli military vehicles as they responded to the earlier strikes. Several soldiers were wounded.
Israel Defense Forces at the scene engaged in a firefight that lasted several hours. Military officials said as many as seven gunmen were killed.
It remained unclear if the attacks were all executed by the same squad of militants, or if separate cells were involved, according to military spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovitz. By Thursday evening, the region remained closed to the public due to fears that other cells might still be operating.
Israeli television showed pictures of one soldier in a bloodied uniform rushing into a local hospital. In the parking lot was a blue minivan, a child seat strapped in the back, with its windows shattered.
Such strikes have been relatively rare in Israel in recent years, but some fear violence may resume due to Palestinian frustration over stalled efforts to achieve an independent state. Instability in Egypt, particularly in the Sinai, is also stirring worries in Israel.
Some witnesses reported that the gunmen appeared to be wearing Egyptian uniforms, but Egyptian officials denied any involvement and vowed to cooperate in the investigation.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel still holds Egypt partly responsible.
"It shows Egypt's weakening grip in the Sinai Peninsula and the growth of terrorist activities there," Barak said Thursday. "The source of the terrorism is in the Gaza Strip and we will act against [the terrorists] with full force and determination."
After the collapse of the Mubarak regime in Egypt early this year, the long-restive Sinai region has spun further out of control. This week, Egypt's military dispatched more than 1,000 soldiers to the region in a crackdown against armed groups believed to have launched several attacks in recent months against Egyptian police and a natural gas pipeline that exports supplies to Israel and Jordan.
Following the attacks in Israel on Thursday, Egyptian state media quoted unnamed security source as saying that they saw no suspicious movement along their borders. The source said nevertheless that authorities are tightening checks on all border points and sweeping the area in search of suspicious elements.
Israel has supported Egypt's crackdown, accusing Bedouin tribes and anti-Israel extremist groups in the northern Sinai of smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the militant group Hamas.
Hamas officials denied that they were involved in Thursday's attacks. Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu warned that Israel would attempt to use the violence as a pretext to launch an offensive against Gaza.
According to one report, Hamas began evacuating its facilities in anticipation of retaliatory airstrikes from Israel.
Officials from the Palestinian Authority, which has condemned the use of violence in fighting Israel's occupation of the West Bank, declined to comment.
