AL-ARISH: Egyptian border guards shot and killed an Eritrean woman and arrested her two young daughters Saturday after they tried to cross illegally into Israel, security and medical officials said.
Mervat Mer Hatover, 37, and her daughters, ages 8 and 10, were among a group of Africans who paid hundreds of dollars to human traffickers to help them cross into Israel, said a security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
The guards chased the Africans along Egypt s border with Israel near Kontala, some 19 miles south of the Al-Oja crossing point, firing into the air and ordering the migrants to surrender, the official said. Hatover refused and tried to jump over the barbed wire marking the border when guards opened fire on her, he said.
Hatover died from a bullet wound to the head, said Imad Kharboush, head of the emergency unit at Al-Arish hospital, where the victim s body was transferred. Kharboush said he received an order from a military prosecutor to carry out an autopsy.
On Jan. 30, two people from the Ivory Coast were shot to death in similar circumstances.
Israel estimates that 2,800 people, mostly from Africa, have entered the country illegally through its border with Egypt in recent years searching for jobs.
The number shot up last summer, apparently as word spread of job opportunities in Israel and a more lenient policy toward refugees. As many as 50 people arrived each day in June, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
