An Egyptian described as a policeman on Saturday killed three Israeli soldiers in a rare exchange of fire near the border between the countries in which the assailant was also killed, official sources from both sides said.
The Israeli army said an Egyptian assailant shot dead two soldiers “in the early morning ... while they secured a military post at the Egyptian border” on Mount Harif, near the town of Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev desert.
The discovery of their bodies triggered a search during which the third soldier was killed.
Photo: Reuters
An army statement identified the assailant as an Egyptian policeman, saying he was killed by Israeli troops after being found “in Israeli territory.”
The statement said that an investigation was being carried out “in full cooperation with the Egyptian army.”
A fourth Israeli soldier, a noncommissioned officer, was lightly wounded and evacuated to hospital, the military added.
An Egyptian army spokesman said “a member of the security forces ... chased drug smugglers. During the chase, the security agent crossed the security fence [border]” and an exchange of fire took place.
Egyptian Minister of Defense Mohammed Zaki later spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant, to “discuss the circumstances of today’s incident,” the defense ministry in Cairo said.
The Israeli Ministry of Defense said that Gallant “emphasized the importance of cooperating further in order to prevent such events in the future.”
Israel’s army had initially declined to confirm media reports of the first two deaths, while the families were being notified.
The two soldiers, a man and a woman, were “killed by live fire adjacent to the border,” it said in a statement.
The female soldier was identified as Lia Ben Nun, 19, and the male was 20-year-old Ori Izhak Iluz. The third soldier killed later was Ohad Dahan, 20.
A barrier runs along the Israel-Egypt border, and an army spokesman said that Israel was looking into how it had been breached.
Hours before the border post attack, Israeli soldiers had foiled an attempted drug smuggling operation at the border, seizing contraband goods estimated to be worth 1.5 million shekels (US$400,100), a spokesman said.
The spokesman added that no link had been established between the drugs seizure and the attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as “severe and extraordinary” and said it would be “fully investigated.”
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