Sharon apologizes for Mubarak, Egypt strongly deplores the killing of its soldiers
Egypt-Israel, Politics, 11/19/2004

Egypt has strongly condemned the killing of three of its soldiers by an Israeli tank shelling on the Egyptian borders with Gaza and described by the Egyptian foreign ministry as an irresponsible act.

In an official statement, the Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abu al-Ghait called on the Israeli authorities to give an explanation for the incident and to make an immediate investigation on the conditions and implications of the incident.

The Egyptian foreign minister asked the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv to give a memorandum of protest for the Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom over these behaviors.

The Israeli foreign minister Ariel Sharon telephoned the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to express his regret over the incident which observers say will drop its shadows on the visit of the Egyptian foreign minister to Israel next Wednesday to discuss the forthcoming Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

An Israeli diplomatic source said that President Mubarak seemed to have accepted Sharon's apology over this incident which was described by Israel as a tragic mistake.

On the implications of the incident, Egyptian security sources said that one Israeli tank opened one shelling from the other side of the border and it hit Tel al-Sultan area in Rafah on the Egyptian borders with Gaza and this was followed by indiscriminate fire from the Israeli soldiers on the site of the explosion that resulted from the tank shelling and that hit the three Egyptian soldiers. Two of them died instantly and the third died of his wounds after his arrival at Mubarak's military hospital in al-Areesh.

The sources explained that the three killed soldiers are Hani Ali Subhi al-Najjar (21 year old); Muhammad Abdul Fattah ( 22 year old) and Amer Abu Baker Amer ( 22 year old).

Worthy mentioning that according to the two Camp David agreements in 1978 and the peace with Israel in 1979, Egypt deploys police forces of light armament on the border with Israel.

Previous Stories:
  Israel: Abu al-Gheit visit postponed   (11/11/2004)
  Al Ahram: El Adly: Egypt did not receive specific information from Israel before Taba bombings   (11/2/2004)
  Haaretz: Israel might accept Egyptian proposal to deploy forces in Sinai   (10/26/2004)

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