routine maintenance work at the security fence constructed along the border between Israel and Egypt. No one was hurt in the attack. Around 13:30, not far from the first shooting incident, militants opened fire, including with an anti-tank missile, at a bus and private car on route 90, a desert road near the border with Jordan. According to medics, five people were killed in the attacks. Seven people were wounded when another private vehicle was hit by an anti-tank missile. Eyewitnesses suggested that some of the attackers may have been wearing Egyptian Army uniforms. Two IAF helicopters were called to the scene in order to evacuate those wounded. Around 18:30, an Israeli patrol was fired on from the Egyptian border as it searched for militants. Israeli troops returned fire, and the shooting lasted for about an hour. A sniper from the Yamam special police unit was critically wounded and later died. News of the firefight interrupted a briefing by the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. According to an Egyptian probe, Israeli troops entered the Sinai Peninsula chasing after the terrorists, exchanging fire with Egyptian police, and an Israeli helicopter fired two rockets at the terrorists and machine guns at Egyptian security personnel, killing an Egyptian officer and two policemen. In a later incident, first reported as a suicide bomb attack, another two Egyptian soldiers were killed, presumably also by Israeli forces. Some Israeli sources claimed that an IDF investigation said that the IDF's attack helicopters avoided hitting the Egyptian military and that it remains unclear who fired the deadly shots. The five deaths triggered a diplomatic row between the two countries and lead to mass protests in Cairo outside the Israeli embassy. Following the attack, all roads to and from Eilat were sealed off and operations at Ovda Airport were suspended. Roadblocks were set up at the entrance to the city of Eilat, and the area was locked down. Magen David Adom (Israel's national emergency medical, disaster, ambulance and blood bank service) raised its alert level and began preparing teams of paramedics and medical equipment. The Israeli Air Force sent in Eilat police deployed a large number of security forces and a police war room was opened at the Yoseftal Medical Center. Seven of the 29 injured people who were brought to the Yoseftal Medical Center were later transferred to Soroka Medical Center in