Three gunmen crossed into Israel from the Sinai peninsula Friday, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding another before being shot dead by other troops, the Israeli military said, reported dpa.
The gunmen opened fire at troops guarding a construction site on the border fence, and a nearby army unit rushed to the scene and joined the firefight, a military spokeswoman, Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich told reporters.
The dead soldier was shot in the head, the other was injured when an explosive belt worn by one of the gunmen went off, media reports said.
The gunmen were wearing flak jackets and carried explosives, Leibovich said. A gagging order on the Israeli casualties was lifted some hours after the incident.
The attack occurred about midway along Israel's 200-kilometre-long border with the Sinai, where workers were completing the border fence Israel is constructing.
The fence, which Israel hopes will stem a flow of African migrants and keep out militants, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
It was not clear to which organization the gunmen belonged.
Friday's shootout was the latest in a series of violent incidents along the border.
In early August, militants killed 16 Egytpian security personnel at an army base in the peninsula, before stealing their vehicles and crossing into Israel. Israeli forces blew up the vehicles, killing the militants.
In June two militants were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in an early-morning gun battle after they crossed the border from the Sinai peninsula and detonated a roadside bomb, killed an Arab-Israeli civilian worker.
In August 2011 gunmen launched a multi-staged, well-coordinated attack from the Sinai, crossing into Israel and shooting up passing vehicles and then opening fire on Israeli troops. Eight Israelis and at least four gunmen were killed.