New Details Emerge About Lone Terrorist Who Killed 3 Israeli Soldiers On Egyptian Border

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — New details have emerged about the deadly attack on the Egyptian border early Saturday morning, in which a lone terrorist killed three IDF soldiers, Ori Yitzhak Illouz, Lia Bin-Nun, and Ohad Dahan, raising questions about the level of preparedness and security measures at the relatively quiet Egyptian border.

The terrorist, who apparently acted alone and without assistance, was carrying a Quran, indicating that he had become radicalized. The IDF estimates that that drove him to carry out the attack.

Galei Tzahal reported that a knife was found on the terrorist, with which he had cut the zip ties that held the gate he entered closed. The gate was an unofficial gate used by Israeli and Egyptian border guards when required and coordinated. The terrorist, an Egyptian policeman, was also found to have six weapon magazines, showing that the attack was well-planned.

Maariv published details about the terrorist’s plan of action: he walked a distance of about six kilometers (approx. 3.7 miles) from his base, climbed a cliff, and arrived at the border fence while carrying a backpack full of gear. Using one of the knives in his possession, he opened a gate on the fence, which was meant to be opened quickly and was closed using only a zip tie, and approached the soldiers who did not notice him. The terrorist used rocks as camoflauge to protect his position. For some reason he was not located by observers manning surveillance cameras.

At this point, the terrorist opened fire at the soldiers from a distance of about 150m, killing Lia Bin-Nun and Ori Yitzhak Illouz. The soldiers at the guard post were shot at around 6:00 AM, while the last time they were heard from was shortly after 4:00. A few minutes before 9:00 that morning, the platoon commander arrived to switch shifts and discovered the gruesome scene.

It was also found that at around 6:00 AM, an additional guard post in the area reported hearing gunshots, but the report did not receive any special attention since the sound of gunshots is commonplace in the area. Once the two bodies were discovered, a large number of forces were called to the area, and at the same time, the terrorist was identified in Israeli territory.

Despite using technological means including a drone to identify the terrorist’s position, he was not eliminated from above but rather troops chose to close in on him. However the terrorist identified the troops first, opening fire on them from a few hundred meters and killing Sgt. Ohad Dahan. He was then eliminated by the company commander.