SINAI - Bedouin tribesmen attacked a humanitarian convoy bound for Gaza after a shootout with police in the Sinai Peninsula, forcing a temporary closure of a nearby border crossing with Israel, a security official said Sunday.
"The police went to a Bedouin village searching for fugitives but the tribesmen opened fire at them in order for the wanted man to be able to flee," the official said.
He added that no one was hurt in the shootout, or in the subsequent Bedouin attack on the convoy that set three vehicles ablaze.
"These incidents led Egyptian police to close the Awja border crossing in order not to be subject to any other attacks," the official said.
Witnesses said that the police searching for fugitives had surrounded Bedouin homes and opened random fire at some of the buildings earlier, but that no one was injured.
The fugitives had been sentenced to prison but were freed by Bedouin in February in an armed attack on the police car that was carrying them. Two policemen were killed in the attack.
Bedouin complain of neglect by the Egyptian Government, and say tough economic times have led more of their kin to resort to smuggling and other criminal activities.
Egypt is building construction barriers along its border with Gaza in an attempt to stop the smuggling.
