Israel demands Egypt help in full probe of rare deadly border attack
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Vehicles approach the gate near the site of a reported security incident near Israel's southern border with Egypt on Saturday.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called the killing of three soldiers by a member of the Egyptian security services a terrorist attack and demanded a full joint investigation with Cairo.
Egypt says it is working with Israel to investigate the incident which occurred on Saturday.
“Israel relayed a clear message to the Egyptian government. We expect that the joint investigation will be exhaustive and thorough,” Mr Netanyahu told his Cabinet in televised remarks.
“We will refresh procedures and methods of operations and also the measures to reduce to a minimum the smuggling and to ensure tragic terrorist attacks like this do not happen again.”
More details of the rare border incident emerged on Sunday.
The frontier is usually peaceful, as the neighbours share close security cooperation, though there are frequent reports of drug smuggling, including one that took place prior to the deadly violence.
Israel’s military said two of its soldiers were shot dead early on Saturday by an Egyptian security services member who crossed the border fence. The dead soldiers’ desert post was remote and it took a number of hours before their bodies were discovered.
“From that moment a terrorist event was declared, leading to sweeps of the area,” said Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari.
“A drone was sent up and 1.5km inside Israel a suspicious person was identified.”
Soldiers then made contact and during an exchange of fire the Egyptian guard and a third Israeli soldier were killed.
On Saturday, the Egyptian military said the three Israelis and Egyptian guard had been killed in an exchange of fire as the guard chased smugglers across the frontier.
Two Egyptian sources said on Sunday that a team was examining the scene and the guard’s body to determine how events transpired.
Co-workers and family members of the Egyptian guard have been interviewed to figure out if he belonged to any political groups or suffered from mental illness, they said.
The Egyptian army offered “sincere condolences to the families of the deceased” and suggested that legal measures would be taken against anybody else found to be involved.
Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. The two countries share a border that spans more than 200km.
Israeli officials and analysts emphasised that strategic relations between the two countries are unlikely to be affected by Saturday’s events.
Lt-Col Hecht said Israeli and Egyptian liaison officers keep in constant contact and that they had been in touch even as the events were unfolding.
On Saturday evening, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant spoke by phone with his Egyptian counterpart Mohamed Zaki, and expressed appreciation for the latter’s “commitment and cooperation in the investigation of the incident”, according to a statement from Mr Gallant’s office.
Israeli and Egyptian authorities have coordinated closely along the border in recent years, particularly since the rise of an Islamic State group affiliate in the vast deserts of the Sinai Peninsula. The affiliate downed a Russian passenger jet in 2015 and has frequently attacked Egyptian security forces there.
Although the desolate, mountainous area has long been known for drug-smuggling activity, deadly security incidents along Israel’s border with Egypt are much rarer, with the last major attacks having taken place over a decade ago.
In August 2011, eight Israelis were killed in a multi-pronged attack from across the Egyptian frontier near the Israeli resort of Eilat. In that episode, militants opened fire at an Israeli bus on a road that winds along the border and, minutes later, detonated a bomb next to an Israeli army patrol.
The militants then fired an anti-tank missile and hit a private vehicle, killing the passengers.
In the chaotic aftermath, Israeli forces killed three of the attackers who crossed into Israeli territory, and five Egyptian officers who were chasing the attackers on the Egyptian side – bringing the two nations to the brink of a diplomatic crisis. REUTERS, NYTIMES
