Deaths of Egyptian troops test Israel-Egypt treaty

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 Israels 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.Israel issued a rare apology for the deaths. Israel is sorry for the deaths of the Egyptian policemen during the attack on the Israel-Egypt border, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement Saturday. Israel said it would investigate.A senior Israeli defense official told The Associated Press Saturday night that initial reports in the investigation show that the terrorists came from Gaza and apparently opened fire on purpose near Egyptian positions in order to bring them into the fighting. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to reporters.Egypt is blaming Israel. It threatened to recall its ambassador to Israel in a strongly worded statement accusing Israel of violating the peace accord.Israel and Gaza both border the Sinai Peninsula.The 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty has come under fire in Egypt since the ouster of longtime President Hosni Mubarak in February after a popular revolt. Mubarak was seen by his people as overly favoring Israel and negotiating a highly unpopular deal to supply Israel with natural gas.Israel, in turn, counted on Mubarak as a trusted, if cool, ally, maintaining the peace treaty despite Egyptian disappointment that it did not lead to a series of peace accords between Israel and the rest of the Arabs, especially the Palestinians. Israeli officials are wary about instability in post-Mubarak Egypt and a new government that might distance itself further from Israel.The Israel-Egypt and Israel-Palestinian issues are closely intertwined. Egypt has tried for decades to broker a peace accord, and in recent years has tried to mediate an end to the internal Palestinian split between Fatah, which runs the West Bank through the Palestinian Authority, and the Islamic Hamas, which rules Gaza.The potential for quick and serious trouble originating in Gaza and complicating relations across the region was never as clear as in the aftermath of the Thursday attack.Israel hit back with an airstrike that killed the leaders of the splinter group thought responsible for the Thursday border attack. Palestinians retaliated for that with rocket salvos.Israeli airstrikes have killed 12 Palestinians, including two children, since Thursday, and Israeli leaders have made it clear that they will not put up with mounting violence from Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened senior ministers and security commanders late on Saturday in an extraordinary session to discuss the surge in violence.