Three Israeli Soldiers and One Egyptian Border Guard Killed in Firefight

Three Israeli soldiers and one Egyptian security official were killed in a firefight on the border on June 3, with the Israel Defense Forces reporting that an investigation was being “conducted in full cooperation with the Egyptian Army.” The Egyptian Armed Forces claimed that border security personnel were “chasing drug smuggling elements” when one security official crossed the border into Israel and “exchanged fire” with Israeli personnel. Israel claimed that its own forces had busted a cross-border smuggling operation when two of its soldiers were gunned down, with a third later killed by “an Egyptian policeman” who had crossed into Israeli territory. The two counties have maintained positive relations since forming diplomatic ties in 1980, despite a history of 31 years of war preceding that date, with close cooperation in areas such as counterterrorism and defence. Egypt is nevertheless restricted under the terms of the two countries’ peace agreement from militarising the formerly Israeli held Sinai Peninsula, an area around three times the size of Israel itself, which separates the country from the Egyptian mainland.

Egypt has played a key role in preventing arms shipments to Palestinian militia groups in the Gaza Strip such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including providing Israel with intelligence on their arms shipment facilities in neighbouring Sudan. Israel has nevertheless lobbied the United States extensively since the late 1970s to seriously limit the capabilities of military equipment supplied to the Egyptian armed forces, which combined with American threats of economic sanctions on Cairo to deter major purchases of non Western equipment has helped ensure a military balance overwhelmingly favourable to Israeli interests. Both Egypt and Israel have come under intense Western pressure over the past year over their neutral positions in the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian War, with both refraining from actively supporting Western efforts against Moscow, imposing sanctions or supplying military equipment - in contrast to neighbouring states such as Morocco and Jordan which have supplied arms.