CAIRO: Israeli soldiers at the border with Egypt shot and killed an Egyptian man Wednesday who is believed to be a smuggler.
The body was discovered by Egyptian border guards early Wednesday at the 82nd marker of the Egypt-Israel border near the city of Taba. There was no identification on the deceased man, who had two gunshots in his back.
The Israeli military had said that they opened fire on a group of men crossing the border, who then dropped a package as they fled. The army later said the package contained drugs.
The IDF said that the smugglers appeared to be armed and that there was cooperation between the Israeli side and the Egyptian army for the operation.
A source in Sinai told Daily News Egypt that none of the Bedouin tribes in the area had announced anything about whether the deceased was a member of a certain tribe.
The source added that the tribes would be reticent in admitting whether any of their members were smugglers.
The online news portal Masrawy quoted Egyptian security sources as saying that the other two were injured and had crawled back over the border after an exchange of gunfire between them and Israeli troops.
And while Israel said that the man who died had made it back to Egyptian territory, the Egyptian security official said it was also possible that Israeli troops had dumped the body back over the border, a matter Egyptian authorities said they would investigate.
