A refugee from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region was shot and wounded by Egyptian police on Wednesday as he and dozens of others tried to make an illegal desert crossing into Israel, a security source said.

Police opened fire on the group of 30 refugees near the Rafah crossing point into the Gaza Strip after they refused to stop, the source said, adding that three others were arrested and the rest disappeared into the Egyptian desert.

The wounded man was taken to hospital. Those arrested said they had paid Bedouin traffickers to take them into Israel where they wanted to seek asylum.

Israel said on Sunday it would return all those entering illegally from Egypt along the 250 kilometre (155 mile) border between the two neighbours which are bound by a 1979 peace treaty.

However, Israel also said it would consider assisting “a small number” of refugees from the western Sudanese region of Darfur, in the grip of civil war.

The border has become a major transit route for mainly east European prostitutes headed to work, voluntarily or involuntarily, in Israel’s lucrative flesh trade, as well as for African migrants and asylum-seekers, and smugglers of illegal weapons and drugs.