Israeli drug smuggler killed in shootout at Egypt border
A 25-year-old alleged Israeli drug smuggler was shot and killed Sunday night during a shootout with undercover Border Police officers at the Egyptian border fence near Nitzanei Sinai in the western Negev.
According to police, the suspect, whose name has not been released, was among a group of 30 drug smugglers, some of whom exchanged gunfire with the officers and Egyptian police after hurling several dozen kilos of unspecified drugs over the fence.
The officers, who were unharmed, set up an ambush after receiving intelligence from Israeli security personnel in the Negev, police said.
The suspects used ladders to climb the fence and throw several bags of narcotics onto the Israeli side. Gunfire broke out on the Egyptian side when police identified themselves and the suspects shot at them.
When suspects on both sides of the fence attempted to flee after failing to load the drugs into four vehicles, Egyptian and Israeli officers blocked off the area.
Police said the dead suspect is an Israeli Beduin from the nearby village of Bir Hadaj, a Beduin agricultural town in the Negev Desert.
He was found an hour later in critical condition at the Tze’elim IDF base, where his accomplices dropped him off, and died shortly thereafter at an area hospital.
Police arrested several other suspects and seized all the drugs.