Israeli Prime Minister Promises Full Inquiry Into Border Shootings Involving Egyptian Officer
In the aftermath of a shooting event on the Israel-Egypt border that claimed the lives of three Israeli soldiers, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised a thorough investigation.
Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a rare shooting on the border, triggering a manhunt in which a third soldier and the alleged assailant were killed, the army said.
The fallen soldiers, identified as Staff Sgt. Ori Yitzhak Iluz, Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan, and Sgt. Lia Ben Nun, belonged to the Bardelas Battalion, responsible for security along Israel’s 128-mile border with Egypt.
The shootings, which occurred between Mount Sagi and Mount Harif in the Negev desert, are particularly unusual given the typically peaceful state of the Israel-Egypt border. The Israel Defense Forces believes the attacker infiltrated the border using an emergency gate during a drug smuggling operation, which the IDF had earlier thwarted. The Egyptian officer later engaged IDF troops, resulting in the soldiers’ deaths and his own.
Egypt has denied any prior knowledge of the officer’s intentions, emphasizing the atypicality of the event and its lack of impact on Israeli-Egyptian relations. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stressed the importance of cooperation in the investigation of the attack to prevent future incidents.
