Africa News
Egyptian soldiers kill Sudanese refugees at Israeli border: report
By DPA
Aug 2, 2007, 20:43 GMT

Tel Aviv - Egyptian soldiers shot and beat to death four presumed Sudanese refugees who were trying to illegally cross the border into Israel, a local television station reported Thursday.

Israel's Channel 10 reported that the four were spotted late Wednesday night by an Israeli military unit near the border. A soldier from the unit, who spoke anonymously to the TV channel, said the Egyptian border police fired many rounds of bullets at the refugees, killing two and injuring one.

The fourth refugee tried to climb the border fence. The Israeli soldiers, in what they described as a 'tug-of-war,' said they tried to pull him over to their side, but the Egyptians overpowered them and captured him.

A shocked and audibly shaken soldier told the channel he and others from his unit heard screams of agony as they helplessly watched the Egyptian soldiers then beat the two refugees to death.

They called the incident a 'lynch.'

Human rights groups say more than 1,000 Sudanese refugees have entered Israel through the porous border with Egypt this year, including at least 250 from the war-torn Darfur region.

Some Sudanese refugees and asylum seekers in Israel have complained of ill treatment while in Egypt.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last month that he and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had reached an understanding that all 'infiltrators' crossing the border would be apprehended by the military and sent back to Egypt.

Egypt had also agreed to work to prevent further infiltrations, Olmert said.

In late July, reports said an Egyptian military unit shot and killed a female Sudanese refugee as she and others tried to cross the border into Israel.