A clash involving an Egyptian border guard in southern Israel along the border left three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian officer dead on Saturday, officials said. It was a rare instance of deadly violence along the border.
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Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a spokesman for the Israeli army, said the fighting began overnight when soldiers stopped an attempt to smuggle drugs across the border.
He said a few hours later, two soldiers at the guard post were shot and killed. Their bodies were found after the shooting, when they did not respond to radio communications.
Hecht said the killings appeared to be connected to a thwarted drug smuggling attempt. The army said the Egyptian border guard was killed in a second exchange of fire in which a third Israeli soldier was killed.
The Egyptian military said an Egyptian border guard crossed a border security barrier and exchanged fire with Israeli forces as he pursued drug smugglers. It said in a statement that the Egyptian border guard was killed along with three Israeli troops.
Hecht said an investigation was being conducted in full cooperation with the Egyptian army. He said the troops are looking for other possible killers.
It was the first deadly exchange of fire on the Israel-Egypt border in more than a decade.
The Israeli army said one of the soldiers killed was a woman.
Criminals sometimes smuggle drugs across the border, while Islamic militant groups are also active in Egypt’s restive northern Sinai. Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 and maintain close security ties. Fighting along their shared border is rare.
The exchange of fire reportedly took place around the Nitzana border crossing between Israel and Egypt. The crossing is located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the point where Israel’s border with Egypt and the Gaza Strip converge. It is used to import goods from Egypt destined for Israel or the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Israel built a fence along the porous border a decade ago to prevent the entry of African migrants and Islamic militants active in Egypt’s Sinai desert.
(AP)