SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 14 February 2025, Friday |

Israel demands Egypt help in full probe of deadly attack at border

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the assassination of three soldiers by an Egyptian security service member a terrorist act and urged a complete joint inquiry with Cairo.

Egypt said it is cooperating with Israel to examine the Saturday incident.

“Israel sent a clear message to Egypt’s government.” “We expect the joint investigation to be exhaustive and thorough,” Netanyahu said in televised remarks to his cabinet.

“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 incident along the border 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 that two of its soldiers were shot dead early on Saturday by an Egyptian security services member who crossed through the border fence. Their 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,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in an interview with Israel’s YNET news. “A drone was sent up and 1.5 kilometres 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. Coworkers 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.

Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel and they share a more than 200-km (124-mile) long border.

    Source:
  • Reuters