Egypt Summons Israeli Envoy Over IDF Executions Of Egyptian POW's

The Egyptian government summoned the Israeli Ambassador to Cairo, after an Israeli documentary film which, according to media reports, alleged an army unit led by Benjamin Ben Eliezer--now Israel's infrastructure minister--executed 250 Egyptian prisoners of war in the Sinai peninsula (during Irsael's invasion and subsequent occupation of the Sinai Desert, in the 1967 War) rather than transferring them to POW camps.

Egypt's Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal Affairs, Abdel Aziz Seif al-Nasr, said Egypt had summoned Israeli ambassador Shalom Cohen to demand an explanation for the contents of the documentary, aired on Israel's Channel One Television last week.

Egypt requested its ambassador in Tel Aviv to obtain a copy of the film from the Israeli government.

Iraeli Death Forces historian Arieh Yitzhaki said more than a decade ago that his research showed Israeli troops killed 300 Egyptian prisoners of war in 1967.

Reports Of Wartime Executions In The Sinai Peninsula Have Surfaced Before:

In 1995, a retired Israeli Death Forces officer told a newspaper of the killing of 49 Egyptian prisoners of war during the 1956 Sinai Campaign.

The Following Are A Few Quotes, That Were Issued By Egyptians:

1. Mahmoud Salim, a member of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party, had this to say:

"That dog of an Israeli ambassador must leave Egypt."

2. Alaa Hassanein, another party member, said:

"I demand the expulsion of that apostate Israeli ambassador and the withdrawal of the Egyptian ambassador from Israel."

3. Salaam al-Ruqi'i, an independent Egyptian lawmaker from the Sinai Peninsula, said:

"The only way this can be eased is through a declaration of a state of war."

"We are still finding mass graves of Egyptian soldiers, and two months ago we extracted the remains of unarmed Egyptian soldiers and civilians from Sinai."


I Had First Reported On These Massacres, Here:
Israel's Masscare Of Egyptian POW's