A man identified by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities as an Egyptian security officer entered Israeli territory on Saturday and killed three Israeli soldiers in two separate shooting incidents in a remote desert area along the border between the two countries, according to an initial investigation by the Israeli military.
Many details remained murky hours after the events unfolded, but Israeli military officials appeared to be treating the incident along the usually quiet border as a rogue assault and said the investigation was being conducted in cooperation with the Egyptian Army.
The Israeli and Egyptian militaries offered different versions of the episode.
A spokesman for the Israeli military said the sequence of events began at about 2.30 a.m. on Saturday when Israeli soldiers thwarted a major cross-border drug smuggling attempt, which involved ladders being placed along the border fence.
Then, at about 8 a.m., when Israeli soldiers stationed at a border post failed to answer calls on their radio, a commander went to the scene and found the bodies of a male soldier and a female soldier, the spokesman said.
Organizations:
Egyptian Army