Israeli emergency personnel stand near a bus after it was ambushed north of the Red Sea resort of Eilat on August 18, 2011. (Lior Grundman/Reuters)

EILAT, Israel (AP) — Gunmen who crossed from the Egyptian desert launched a series of attacks Thursday in southern Israel, killing seven people and threatening to destabilize a volatile border region that includes the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula.

Israel blamed an armed Palestinian group from neighboring Gaza. Israeli forces killed five of the gunmen along the border with Egypt, the military said, and later launched an airstrike inside Gaza that killed five other militants from the same group as well as a child.

The Israeli military said three of the dead men in Gaza had been involved in planning the attack.

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