A fresh attack overnight on a pipeline delivering gas from Egypt to Israel left one person injured, witnesses and Egyptian security sources said Tuesday, September 27.
At least three gunmen in a van opened fire on a gas installation before an explosion hit the pipeline near the town of al-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula, witnesses said, AFP reported.
It was the sixth such attack on the pipeline since Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February. It carries gas through the Sinai and on to Jordan and Israel.
Previous attacks have already disrupted gas deliveries to both countries several times, but it was not immediately clear what impact the latest attack would have on supplies.
Army experts have also located and defused a number of other devices targeting the pipeline.
And last month, four armed men were arrested as they tried to blow up the gas terminal near al-Arish. The same month, Egypt stepped up its police and army patrols in the Sinai to try to protect the pipeline.
Egypt supplies 43 percent of Israel's natural gas and 40 percent of Israel's electricity comes from this source.
The latest blast comes against a background of rising tension between Egypt and Israel. On August 18, Israeli troops killed five Egyptian policemen as they chased militants along the border. That incident followed a series of desert ambushes that killed eight Israelis.
