Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian soldier who breached the Israeli border and killed three Israeli soldiers, has become a popular hero in Egypt, according to Israeli media. Based on media reports, the name of the Egyptian soldier who killed three Israeli soldiers has become the subject of wide interest on social media. According to Israeli news websites, the soldier who carried out the shooting on the border is named Mohamed Salah Ibrahim and is 22 years old. A photo of the Egyptian soldier was published by the Israeli broadcaster, which reported that he is a policeman in the Egyptian border guard forces and comes from the Ain Shams area in Cairo governorate.<\/p>\n
Egypt and Israel agree that the Egyptian soldier who carried out the border crossing breached the border fence between the two countries and exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers, killing 3 Israeli soldiers before he was killed. There are differences between the two sides over the details and motives of this incident. The Israeli broadcaster indicated that the act may have been an expression of his solidarity with Palestine. According to the report, Salah suffered psychological difficulties after the killing of a colleague in his unit.<\/p>\n
The past hours have witnessed political developments and intensive contacts between the Egyptian and Israeli sides. The Israeli authorities described the incident as “a sabotage act by an Egyptian policeman”, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded a joint investigation with Egypt into the killing of the three soldiers. A statement was published by the military spokesperson of the Egyptian army reporting the killing of an Egyptian soldier while chasing drug smugglers on the border with Israel. It emerged that the soldier breached the border barrier and an exchange of fire took place, resulting in the killing of three members of the Israeli security force and the injury of others, in addition to the killing of the Egyptian soldier.<\/p>\n
According to Israeli investigations, the Egyptian policeman entered through a special crossing and advanced about 5 kilometres armed with an old Kalashnikov rifle, and he also cut the shackles placed on the crossing using a knife. The investigation’s findings indicated that the Egyptian soldier planned every step in advance and knew the area well, including the observation post where the Israeli soldiers were killed, given his role as a border guard. The killing of the Israeli soldiers prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to demand a joint investigation with Egypt into the incident.<\/p>\n
Egyptian officials did not disclose how the Egyptian soldier crossed the border fence, while Israeli officials stated that he used an “emergency gate” in the fence, in the area adjacent to Mount Sagi and Mount Harif in the Negev desert, about 50 kilometres south of the Al-Awja land crossing. According to international and Israeli media, “emergency gates” are used as small gates for crossing the border when necessary, in coordination between the two armies, and there is no information about this gate having been used before.<\/p>\n
The border fence between Egypt and Israel was built in 2010 with the aim of countering illegal migration, infiltration and smuggling, and its construction was completed in late 2013. The fence extends for about 240 kilometres from the Gaza Strip in the north to the city of Eilat in the south, and its height was raised to 8 metres after initially being 5 metres. Its construction cost between USD 400 million and USD 450 million.<\/p>\n
Surveillance cameras, radars and small gates were added to the fence, including the gate the Egyptian soldier passed through in the border incident, according to Radio Monte Carlo International and Israeli newspapers. The fence has reduced the numbers of illegal migrants infiltrating across the border, but smuggling continues. The Egyptian military official’s classification of the soldier who carried out the border operation as a “security element” rather than a soldier or conscript, while Israel described him as a “policeman”, is due to his service at International Marker 47, located in Zone “C” in North Sinai governorate. Marker 47 has been mentioned in the media in previous years as an area on the Egyptian-Israeli border where attempts at illegal migration into the occupied territories are confronted. For example, three people from Africa were arrested in 2016 near Marker 47 in the Al-Kuntilla area of central Sinai for attempting to infiltrate the Israeli border, and earlier reports were published about a similar attempt in 2012.<\/p>\n
As for the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel signed in 1979, it stipulates that there be no military forces in Zone “C” in Sinai, located on the Egyptian-Israeli border, and that forces there be limited to police only.<\/p>\n
In the security annex to the peace treaty, published by the United Nations, Sinai was divided into three zones that differ in their security forces, the type of those forces and their affiliation, and Article II of the annex explains the following:<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Egyptian security forces last Tuesday prevented the holding of a mourning ceremony in front of the home of conscript Mohamed Salah in the Ain Shams area; a heavy presence of police and plain-clothes security men appeared around the house, and security measures were tightened in the area. Journalists were also prevented from reaching the house for a short period and were later released. According to information, Salah’s friends, who were arrested two days earlier along with his brother and uncle, have not returned to their homes, even after his brother and uncle were released.<\/p>\n
In the previous days, the security forces visited the family home of Mohamed Salah in the Ain Shams area and questioned family members, then took his brother (Mahmoud) and his uncle to an unknown location before releasing them later to attend the conscript’s secret burial without the presence of his mother and the rest of his relatives.<\/p>\n
The available information stated that Mohamed Salah, 22, lives on Ahmed Esmat Street in the Ain Shams area. His father, who worked at the Public Transport Authority, died in a traffic accident years ago. Mohamed lives in the family home with his older brother Mahmoud and his younger brother Abdo, and he supports the family alone because of the financial crises it suffers from.<\/p>\n
Mohamed did not complete his education: he obtained a preparatory certificate and was unable to complete his industrial secondary studies. He worked as an aluminium craftsman in a workshop on Ahmed Esmat Street, then moved to work as a carpenter with his maternal uncle in Al-Qalag in the city of Khanka in Qalyubia governorate. Mohamed is interested in drawing and has a talent for designing kitchens, which he practised in his work. Mohamed joined the army in 2022, as part of the intake that graduated in June, and serves as a policeman in the Central Security Forces on the border between Egypt and the occupied Palestinian territories, in the North Sinai sector, at International Marker No. 47.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian conscript who crossed the border and killed three Israeli soldiers, became a popular hero in Egypt. Here are the full details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,412],"tags":[18919,18913,18921,18918,18914,18917,18915,18912,18920,18916],"kateb":[710],"class_list":["post-18188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investigations-en","category-politics-en","tag-ain-shams-family-arrests","tag-border-shooting-june-2023","tag-central-security-forces","tag-egypt-israel-border-fence","tag-egypt-israel-border-incident","tag-egypt-israel-peace-treaty-security-annex","tag-international-marker-47","tag-mohamed-salah-egyptian-soldier","tag-netanyahu-joint-investigation","tag-zone-c-in-sinai","kateb-zawia3-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/\u0633\u064a\u0646\u0627\u0621.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18189,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18188\/revisions\/18189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18188"},{"taxonomy":"kateb","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawia3.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kateb?post=18188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}