IDF reserves officer says Israel-Egypt border is 'absolute lawlessness'

Yonatan, an IDF reserve officer who served about three years ago as a unit commander near the Egyptian border, spoke with Erel Segal and David Wertheim on 103FM on Sunday, commenting on the deadly incident in which three IDF soldiers were killed in the shooting attack on the Egyptian border on Saturday.

"I have been walking around with this story for three years now. I served in the reserves in Malkiya, an area a bit more to the north [of where the attack happened], what's going on at the border there is absolute lawlessness," he claimed.

"We were there for three weeks and tried to prevent smuggling. On the last day, there were 14 smuggling attempts over the fence, and shots were fired for 20-30 minutes straight, it was crazy. This happened at a point [on the border] which we couldn't see, but could be seen from the Egyptian side, apparently. I was on patrol and about to rush to the scene, but my orders were not to come close.

"This means if there is a smuggling attempt now? It's criminal. It's not connected to the military. What's more, shots hit really close to my jeep and the company commander shouted at me, 'Don't approach!' This seemed absolutely crazy to me," Yonatan told.

Drug smugglers are getting more violent

Maariv military reporter Tal Lev Ram then joined the discussion and answered that "drug smuggling operations have gotten very violent, with Bedouin tribes acting like a military unit and their target usually are the Egyptian police officers. Many police officers were shot dead by smugglers." Yonatan told Lev Ram that "the army doesn't exercise its sovereignty."

Lev Ram went on to say that "the army said 'drugs aren't my problem, where are the police and other authorities,' the truth is that in the last two years, the army made the issue of drugs and smuggling its focus, unlike in past years."

Yonatan emphasized that in his opinion "I think the army doesn't want to get involved in a criminal incident or at least, fails when it tries to. They decreased the budget for the fight against smuggling from four to two million shekels. The Egyptian army can end this."

"You know that in the Sinai peninsula, the police officers don't shoot for fun, you know that there is a region where there is shooting all the time and the army avoids getting involved in it, so all of a sudden when there are shots and two soldiers get killed, it's not surprising."