Blasts hit 2 Egyptian Red Sea towns near border with Israel
Blasts hit two Egyptian Red Sea towns on Friday, injuring at least six people, according to the Egyptian military and state media, with Israel blaming the incidents on an "aerial threat" in the region.
Egyptian army spokesman Col. Gharib Abdel-Hafez said an "unidentified drone" crashed Friday morning into a building near a hospital in the resort town of Taba, near the border with Israel, injuring six people.
Earlier on Friday, Egyptian state-linked TV channel Al-Qahera News said a missile fired as part of the escalation in the neighboring Gaza Strip had struck a medical facility in Taba.
The channel later reported that an "unidentified body" crashed near a power station in the South Sinai resort town of Nuweiba, some 45 miles to the south.
The Israeli military said the incidents were a result of an "aerial threat" in the Red Sea region and that there were no Israeli casualties from the strike near its border.
"An aerial threat was detected in the Red Sea region, and fighterjets were called in to deal with it," the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement. "We estimate that the harm to Egypt was caused by this threat," he said, adding that Israel will work with Egypt and the United States to "tighten defense in the region" against such threats.
Egyptian witnesses said fighter jets have roared above the two towns since dawn.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the two incidents.
Earlier this week, a number of Egyptian border guards were injured after being hit by fragments of a shell that Israel’s army said was accidentally fired from one of its tanks. The Israel Defense Forces quickly apologized for the incident.
The recent incidents highlight the risk Egypt faces from a possible regional spillover of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza.
-ABC News' Ayat Al-Tawy
