Deaths Of Egyptian Troops Test Israel-Egypt Treaty

JERUSALEM (AP) — The death of Egyptian soldiers caught in a battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants is testing the two nations' landmark 1979 peace treaty, just as a sudden spike in violence Saturday threatened to trigger a full-scale conflict between Israel and Gaza militants.

Palestinians have pelted southern Israel with at least 80 rockets and mortars since Friday, killing an Israeli on Saturday in the desert city of Beersheba, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Gaza. Dozens of Israelis were wounded in the barrage, including a 2-week-old baby, hospital officials said. The flurry of exploding rockets damaged buildings all over Israel's south.

It was the heaviest salvo of rockets from Gaza since Israel staged an all-out ground and air operation in Gaza to stop daily rocket attacks in early 2009.

The attack that triggered the double crisis saw heavily armed militants ambushing Israeli buses and cars with gunfire and a bomb along the Egyptian border Thursday. The Egyptian soldiers were apparently killed during the firefight between fleeing militants and Israeli forces.

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