Two Israeli Border Police officers were lightly wounded by IDF fire on Thursday morning during an attempt to thwart smuggling along the Egyptian border.
The officers were injured after smugglers on the Egyptian side opened what the Israeli military said was a “massive’ barrage of gunfire toward IDF troops at around 1 a.m.
IDF troops returned fire and mistakenly identified a vehicle driven by undercover police as belonging to smugglers and fired toward the wheel of the car. As a result, the two officers were lightly injured in their hands from shrapnel.
They were evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba for medical treatment.
According to security sources quoted by Walla News, the attempted smuggling that took place was “exceptionally violent” and it’s believed that the gunfire by the smugglers was to deter IDF troops and Border Police officers from thwarting the smuggling.
The military said a total of nine smuggling attempts were thwarted throughout the night and security forces seized approximately 400 kg. (882 lbs.) of drugs with an estimated value of about NIS 8 million ($2.5m.).
Two border police officers were lightly wounded by IDF troops from the Carcal battalion during the foiling of a drug smuggling attempt along the Egyptian border. Military said that there was a massive firing towards troops by smugglers
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Over the years the 240-km. (149-mile) long border between Israel and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has seen numerous terrorist attacks and countless drug and weapons smuggling attempts by Bedouin.
It remains a major concern for IDF troops who are stationed along the border as in some smuggling attempts, troops have been fired upon.
In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post, Lt. Danielle Shalom, who is stationed along the border with her troops from the Bardelas Battalion, smugglers have also used rocket-propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and other weaponry against IDF troops.
“On a day-to-day threat level, ISIS is less of a threat. It’s the criminal smugglers who are more worrisome. They fire at us and it’s a matter of life and death,” Shalom said. “At the end of the day, it’s not really any different than someone who crosses the border to carry out a terror attack.”
While the IDF has been able to reduce the time it takes to arrive at such events to several minutes, the smugglers sometimes use drones and have military radios that alert them to troops who are on the way.
In the majority of smuggling attempts, groups of men drive up to the border fence on the Egyptian side of the border and place ladders on the 10-foot-high fence that they quickly climb up and throw over bags of drugs to Israeli Bedouin smugglers waiting on the other side.
According to IDF figures, Israeli smugglers can make a profit of $50,000-$70,000 during one smuggling attempt that costs $150,000 while those on the Egyptian side of the fence can profit $25,000-$35,000 for an attempt that would cost them $50,000.