JERUSALEM, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- "It was clear to me that we are facing mortal danger. One of the militants exploded in front of our eyes, and parts of him flew in every direction. While the shots were ringing, I began understanding what is happening, where we are and the direction from which we're being fired at," a female Israel soldier depicts a battle that took place on the Israel-Egypt border on Friday.

The soldier under pseudonym of "S" is a sniper in Caracal, a mixed-gender infantry battalion established in the Israeli army eight years ago. She is now credited with being the first female soldier in decades to have actively participated in battle and score a kill.

Her baptism of fire came Friday noon, when an armed band of militants ambushed Israeli troops at Har Harif, an area in the Negev desert bordering Egypt, killing one and wounding another.

The army said the gunmen engaged the soldiers from 100 meters while they were tending to a group of African migrants who were stranded along an uncompleted segment of the border fence being constructed in the region, about midway between the Gaza Strip and the Red Sea.

"S" was on a routine jeep patrol, just hundreds of meters from the scene, when the first shots killed a 20-year-old Artillery Corps soldier. His colleagues promptly returned fire and killed one of the attackers.

"All of a sudden we heard on the two-way radio a female soldier screaming, 'We're being shot at.' I told the driver, 'Get over there as quickly as possible,'" the Yediot Aharonot daily on Monday quoted "S" as saying.

"It was the first encounter with militants for both me and the battalion. I thought about the girl we heard on the radio and feared for her life, I also thought about my parents," she recalled.

Once at the scene of the attack, "S" said she had no doubt what has to be done. "I didn't think twice. I exited the Hummer and ran under fire until I reached Netanel (the slain soldier), but when I saw him I told the commander that he cannot be saved, and that we must go on."

Within seconds, "S" and her comrades closed in on the militants, killing two more. A soldier was moderately wounded after rounds fired at one of the militants detonated an explosive belt he was carrying, triggering a powerful blast.

"He exploded near us, right in our faces," "S" described.

It was then that she hit the ground, took arm with the telescopic sight on her weapon and squeezed the trigger, killing one of the assailants.

Friday's battle, the last in a string of violent incidents, turned Egypt's Sinai Peninsula into Israel's most volatile frontier.