3 migrants injured in Sinai gunfight

Israeli soldiers exchanged gun fire with Egyptian smugglers early on Monday, injuring three migrants, the Israeli news site Ynet reported. The migrants were attempting to enter Israeli via the Egyptian Sinai. All three were airlifted to a hospital in Beersheva to be treated for their injuries. One Egyptian smuggler was injured by Israeli fire, Ynet said. Immigration to Israel is a controversial issue in a country which seeks to maintain a Jewish majority. Race riots broke out last week in south Tel Aviv, when over 1,000 people called for African migrants to be deported in a rampage that an Israeli broadcaster dubbed a "pogrom." Crowds of demonstrators attacked African residents, smashed store-fronts belonging to the migrant community and looted other commercial properties. Fleeing poverty, fighting and authoritarian rule, some 60,000 Africans have crossed illegally into Israel through the relatively porous desert border with Egypt in recent years.