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Two Israeli soldiers were killed in a gun battle along the Egyptian border in southern Israel on Saturday, the military said, in a rare episode of deadly violence along the border.
Soldiers respond near the site of a security incident near Israel’s southern border with Egypt on June 3. (Reuters)
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The military said one of the attackers was inside Israel when he opened fire on troops. The soldiers returned fire, killing the gunman.
One of the soldiers killed was a woman, the military said. It gave no details about the attackers.
Criminals sometimes smuggle drugs across borders, while Islamist militant groups are also active in Egypt’s restive North Sinai peninsula.
Israel and Egypt signed a peace accord in 1979 and maintain close security ties. Fighting along their shared border is rare.
The exchange of fire reportedly took place near the Nitzana crossing between Israel and Egypt. The crossing is located approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the point where the Israeli-Egyptian border meets the Gaza Strip. It is used to import goods from Egypt to Israel or the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
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A decade ago, Israel built a fence along the porous border to keep out African migrants and Islamist militants active in Egypt’s Sinai Desert.
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