Gaza closes tunnels on Egyptian border

The Ministry of Interior of the dissolved government in Gaza on Monday announced that all tunnels on the Egyptian border were closed while security forces prepared for any possibly infiltrations after Sunday's attack that killed 16 Egyptian border guards. Five gunmen who slew the officers near the border with Israel before crossing into the Jewish state in an armoured vehicle have been killed, an Israeli army spokesman said Monday. "The bodies of the five gunmen have been found by the Israeli army," said the spokesman a day after the incident but did not give details. An Egyptian medical official said earlier the gunmen in Bedouin attire drove up in two vehicles and opened fire on the checkpoint near the Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom in Hebrew) border crossing and opened fire. The health ministry said 16 soldiers and border guards were killed, while a security official said another seven were wounded. The ministry said in a statement to Arabstoday that the attack pointed a finger at the Israeli Occupation, accusing them of "trying to tamper with the Egyptian security and spreading sedition and discord among the Egyptian and Palestinian people while undermining Egyptian revolution". It added: "The border with Egypt is protected and insured by us. We consider the Egyptian national security as one of our priorities and Egypt's security is our security."  The ministry also said it refused to involve the Gaza Strip in the events without investigations, while saying of the soldiers: "May they be martyrs, God willing.” The Prime Minister of the Gaza government, Ismail Haniyeh, met on Sunday night with  Interior Minister Fathi Hammad, and security officials to study the situation. Haniyeh confirmed in a brief statement that the Palestinian government was working with the Egyptian leadership to "uncover the truth". Egypt's official MENA news agency said the gunmen were "jihadists" from inside the Islamist Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Speaking after an emergency meeting with military officials, the interior minister and the intelligence chief, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi vowed to retake control of the Sinai after the attack. "The (security) forces will take full control of these regions," Morsi said in a television address. He had given "clear instructions" that Egypt must take "full control of the Sinai", after the security situation deteriorated markedly following the ouster of longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak early last year. Morsi, who took the oath of office on June 30 to become the country's first freely elected leader and its first head of state since Mubarak's overthrow, said those who committed the "cowardly" attack and those who worked with them would pay dearly.  "Those responsible for this crime will be hunted down and arrested," he said.