Author: Jpost.Com Staff
Publication: The Jerusalem Post
Date: August 2, 2007
URL: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1186066367980
Egyptian soldiers killed four Sudanese refugees
near the Egypt-Israel border overnight Wednesday in full view of IDF troops,
a shaken-sounding IDF soldier said in an interview with Channel 10, Thursday
evening.
According to the soldier, female IDF troops
operating night vision devices identified several refugees approaching the
border in an attempt to infiltrate Israel and alerted other soldiers who arrived
after a few minutes in an army jeep.
However, Egyptian troops who also discovered
the refugees, fired upon them, immediately killing two and wounding a third.
A fourth refugee ran towards the fence and an IDF soldier stretched out his
hands, trying to help him cross.
At that point, the soldier recalled, two Egyptian
soldiers arrived and started pulling at the refugee's legs.
"It was literally like we were playing
'tug of war' with this man," the soldier said. The soldier eventually
loosened his grip on the man, fearing the Egyptians would shoot him.
"They were aiming loaded weapons straight
at us, I was afraid they were going to shoot us," he said.
The Egyptians then carried the man several
meters away from the border fence, and proceeded to beat him and another wounded
refugee to death with stones and clubs.
"What happened there yesterday was a
lynch. These are not men, they're animals. They killed him without even using
firearms," the soldier said. "We just heard screams of pain and
the sounds of beatings. Then the screams stopped."
The entire event was caught on IDF tapes,
but the soldier said that his commanders, who were not at the site, would
not dare watch them.
The entire incident took place on the Egyptian
side of the border, IDF sources told Israel Radio later Thursday evening.
A Channel 10 commentator said the channel
preferred not to show the tape, so as not to cause a diplomatic row with Egypt.
Egyptian authorities said that they would
investigate the incident.
