JERUSALEM, July 22 (Reuters) - Gunshots fired across the
border from Egypt on Sunday hit an Israeli army bus but caused
no casualties, a military spokeswoman said.
The attack, in the central sector of the porous desert
frontier, may heighten Israeli fears of an erosion of security
in the Egyptian Sinai given the political upheaval in Cairo.
A Sinai pipeline built to supply Israel and Jordan with gas
was blown up in a separate incident on Sunday, the 15th such
sabotage since the start of a popular revolt that toppled the
U.S.-aligned Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February last
year.
Mubarak was succeeded by Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim
Brotherhood, which is ideologically hostile to the Jewish state
and linked to the Hamas Islamists who run the Gaza Strip, a
Palestinian territory that also abuts Sinai.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in April that
Sinai was becoming a lawless "Wild West," but his government has
since signalled more confidence in the new Egyptian government's
ability to restore order.
Last month, gunmen whom the Israeli military said crossed
into Israel from Sinai fired on Israelis building a barrier on
the border, killing one worker before soldiers shot dead two of
the attackers.
An Egyptian security source said officials were still
investigating what he described as "Israel's claims that a
sniper opened fire from inside the Egyptian lands near Egypt's
borders with Israel towards a bus carrying Israeli passengers."
(Additional reporting by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia, writing by
Dan Williams, editing by Mark Heinrich)