Egyptians thwart drug smugglers at Gazan aid checkpoint

Egyptian authorities thwarted a drug smuggling attempt after an exchange of gunfire close to a crossing on its border with Israel, where aid deliveries for Gaza are being inspected.

Egypt said it killed one smuggler and arrested six during the incident on Monday, south of Al Awja border crossing.

The crossing, 40km south of Rafah, is where Israel inspects humanitarian aid destined for Gaza.

Israel said one of its soldiers was “slightly injured” in the incident.

Drugs weighing 174kg were seized, the Egyptian military said.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesman, said on X, formerly Twitter, that 20 suspects approached the border and several were injured.

Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 and have since co-operated on counterterrorism and combating human and drug trafficking across their border.

The latest smuggling incident comes amid heightened tensions between Egypt and Israel over the war in Gaza and Israel’s suggestion that it wants to control a corridor that runs along Egypt’s 13km border with Gaza, where Hamas has ruled since 2007.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that a decision had yet to be made about a potential military takeover of the “Philadelphia Corridor”, the stretch of land that runs alongside the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.

Sealing off the zone to isolate Hamas was one of Israel’s aims for the war in Gaza, and “there are a number of options” for how it could do so, including stationing troops in the corridor, he said.

“We have looked into these and have yet to make a decision,” he added.

Earlier this month, Egyptian officials said Cairo had rejected Israel’s plan to install surveillance cameras and sensors on the Gaza side of the border.

Egypt has built a concrete wall on its border with Gaza together with a fence of barbed wire to increase its security.