Israel-Hamas war: "drone" injures six in Egyptian border town

Six people were injured when a drone crashed early Friday into the Egyptian town of Taba, which borders Israel, a country at war with Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian army reported.

"An unidentified drone crashed on the outskirts of a building adjacent to Taba hospital on Friday, causing six minor injuries," its spokesman said on Facebook.

Previously, AlQahera News television, which is close to Egyptian intelligence, had reported "a rocket" fired by an unidentified party "as part of the current escalation in Gaza".

Witnesses confirmed to AFP that the projectile had hit a hospital annex in this Red Sea town on the northeastern tip of Sinai, where there is a border crossing with Israel.

Images broadcast by the local media and social networks showed a damaged building and several vehicles blown up in the vicinity.

The Sinai desert peninsula is bordered to the northwest by the Gaza Strip and shares its eastern border with Israel.

Egypt, the historic mediator between Palestinians and Israelis, which holds Gaza's only gateway to the world that is not in Israeli hands, has been on the front line since 7 October.

On that day, Hamas carried out an unprecedented surprise attack on Israeli soil that has since claimed more than 1,400 lives. In retaliation, Israel is now relentlessly bombing the Gaza Strip, killing around 7,000 people according to the local authorities.

Hamas, which is in power in Gaza, like other Palestinian armed groups, regularly fires barrages of rockets into Israeli territory. It also has small homemade drones.

On Sunday, the Israeli army announced that it had "mistakenly" fired one of its tanks at an Egyptian position on the outskirts of the Gaza Strip. Egypt reported the incident and apologised to the Israeli army, which reported "minor injuries" among its ranks. Egypt organised a "Peace Summit" on Sunday. 

It is constantly calling for de-escalation between Israel and Hamas. On Wednesday, President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi reviewed his troops in Suez, at the entrance to Sinai, calling for "reason" and "patience", while urging his men to "always be ready".