Egypt kills man at Israel border, 30 migrants held

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police shot dead a Bedouin man on Saturday at the Israel border as he tried to help African migrants reach the Jewish state, and separately arrested 30 migrants in a house raid, security sources said.

The sources said police fired on the Egyptian man, Ahmed Salim Oweid, when he refused orders to stop. He was hit twice and died of his wounds. A group of African migrants who were with him fled and were being pursued by police.

Border violence has increased in recent months as Egypt cracked down on African migrants. Sixteen migrants have been killed at the border this year and up to 1,000 Eritrean asylum seekers have been deported since June 11 despite U.N. protests.

Separately, police arrested 30 African migrants in a raid on a house near the Suez Canal, where they were waiting to cross into Sinai on their way to the border, security sources said.

"Secret information reached the security apparatus in Ismailia province that 30 Africans from Sudan, Eritrea, Ghana and Ethiopia, including a number of women and children, were hiding in a house," one of the sources said.

Earlier this week, gunmen shot dead an Egyptian police officer who tried to stop them from helping African migrants cross the border. In June alone, police killed three African men and a seven-year-old Sudanese girl at the sensitive frontier.

Amnesty International says thousands of migrants try to cross into the Jewish state from Egypt each year, with numbers rising since 2007.

The migrants are seeking work or asylum away from conflict at home and harsh living conditions in Egypt, where activists say African migrants face economic marginalization and racism.

(Reporting by Yusri Mohamed; Writing by Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Jon Boyle)