Egyptian soldier Abdullah Ramadan Ashri, who was killed by Israeli fire on Monday during a clash in Rafah, was not the first; there were others before him who engaged with Israeli forces along the border between the two countries. Over the 45 years since the signing of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979, several security incidents have occurred along the border.
The first notable incident took place in 1985 when a Egyptian soldier opened fire on Israeli soldiers. On October 5, 1985, while on his regular guard duty in South Sinai, soldier Suleiman Khater was surprised to see a group of Israeli tourists attempting to climb the plateau near his observation point. He tried to prevent them and informed them that access to the area was prohibited, but they did not heed his instructions and continued walking beside the guard post, prompting him to open fire and kill seven of them.
In November 1990, another incident occurred when Egyptian soldier Ayman Hassan killed 21 Israelis and injured about 20 others. He then managed to hide, returned to the Egyptian borders, and surrendered himself and his weapon. He was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison, claiming he acted in retaliation for the mistreatment by Israeli soldiers and in response to Israel's first massacre at Al-Aqsa.
Fast forward 33 years to June 2023, a new incident surfaced at the border when soldier Mohamed Salah carried out an operation that led to the killing and injury of five Israeli soldiers before being shot dead by Israeli forces. This operation followed events in Gaza, where Israeli forces attacked the region, resulting in thousands of injuries and fatalities. The official Egyptian narrative at the time stated that the soldier was pursuing a number of drug traffickers and inadvertently crossed into Israeli territory, leading to an exchange of gunfire that resulted in his death and that of three other Israeli soldiers.
