Three Israeli dogfaces have been killed by an Egyptian security officer in exchanges of fire on the Israeli side of the border.
The fortified forces of both countries say they’re concertedly probing the unusual incident.
Egypt says its officer crossed into Israel while chasing medicine merchandisers.
The Israeli service has said the blowups were assumed to be connected with a medicine smuggling operation it had baffled overnight.
According to the army, two Israeli dogfaces- a man and woman- posted in a remote spot along the border were shot dead early on Saturday morning.
Their bodies were discovered after a elderly officer was unfit to communicate them by radio.
Hours latterly, after a hunt operation, the alleged bushwhacker was encircled and there was a shootout, the Israeli service says.
A third dogface was killed, along with the marksman, who it said was an Egyptian bobby . Another dogface was wounded in that exchange.
In a vaguely articulated statement, the Egyptian service said that its security officer was pursuing medicine bootleggers and that a firing led to the Israeli deaths.
It also conveyed” sincere condolences” to the families of the victims.
The Israeli service says contraband worth about$ 400,000 was seized by its forces during the late operation against bootleggers.
Image caption,
The attacks reportedly happed near Mount Harif military base in the Negev desert
Dogfaces are continuing to search in the area for others that may have been involved, the army says. It isn’t clear how the bobby managed to enter Israel from Egypt.
Israeli media say the attacks happed between Mount Harif and Mount Sagi which lie in the Negev desert, about half- way between the Mediterranean seacoast and the Red Sea Egyptian resort of Eilat.
Israeli military spokesperson Richard Hecht told intelligencers” Co-operation with the Egyptians is ongoing, it’s good. This isn’t geopolitical.”
This appears to be one of the most serious border incidents since Egypt came the first Arab country to subscribe a peace convention with Israel in 1979.
Although the two countries are frequently described as having” a cold peace” in recent times, they’ve worked together nearly on military and intelligence matters, particularly oncounter-terrorism.
The Israeli air force has supported the Egyptian army in its fight against so- called Islamic State zealots in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
The most serious infiltration attempt in recent times took place in 2012.
Back also, zealots attacked an Egyptian checkpoint near to Rafah on the border with the Gaza Strip, killing 16 Egyptian bobbies and stealing two armoured buses .
They used these to break through the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel where one of the vehicles exploded. After a attack, Israel said the bodies of eight bushwhackers were set up.
In the once decade, Israel has erected a altitudinous border hedge to try to keep out zealots and to stop people- smuggling from Egypt- in particular settlers crossing fromsub-Saharan Africa.
still, medicine smuggling attempts in the area remain frequent. The border stretches some 255 km( 160 long hauls), making it delicate for security details.
Recent times have seen several cases of gunfire between bootleggers and Israeli dogfaces. The Egyptian army has also shot at medicine bootleggers and jihadists which has sometimes led to accidentalcross-border fire.
Last December, Israeli dogfaces shot dead a suspect who was supposedly trying to smuggle medicines into Israel.
