Israeli media reported ‘unusual’ incident before military censorship placed gag order on the story
Middle East Eye
Israeli media reported an exchange of fire between Egyptian and Israeli soldiers at the Rafah crossing on Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip on Monday.
Further details of the incident were not immediately available after the Israeli military censor put a gag order on additional reporting, according to Al Jazeera.
There was no immediate comment from the Egyptian and Israeli authorities.
The incident, described as ‘unusual’ by Israeli media, was first reported on Channel 13 and Channel 14.
The reports said Egyptian soldiers opened fire at an Israeli truck at the Rafah border crossing and Israeli soldiers returned fire.
There were no confirmations of casualties.
Channel 13 said the Israeli military was investigating the incident.
Daily News Egypt, an independent English-language Egyptian newspaper, cited unnamed sources who said Egyptian soldiers were ‘affected’ by the Rafah massacre on Sunday, in which an Israeli bombing led to the killing of 45 Palestinians at a displacement camp.
The Rafah border crossing was seized by Israeli forces earlier this month as the military expanded its ground invasion of Gaza into the southern city of Rafah.
The occupation of the crossing increased tensions between Egypt and Israel, threatening 45 years of peace between the two countries that previously fought in four wars.
The Israeli takeover of the crossing riled Egypt, which cooperates closely on security matters with Israel.
An Egyptian military source told Middle East Eye there had been ‘no operational coordination’ between Egypt and Israel before the crossing was seized.
A week after Israel stormed the crossing, Egypt deployed additional armoured personnel carriers and soldiers to its border with Gaza in northeastern Sinai, according to the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights.
Cairo has also refused to open the border crossing from the Egyptian side until the Israeli military withdraws, saying that operating the crossing was exclusively an Egyptian-Palestinian matter.