Three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian policeman were killed by gunfire near the border of the two countries.

The Egyptian Army announced for its part that a member of the security forces, who was pursuing drug smugglers, crossed a checkpoint between the two countries. According to the Egyptian side, an exchange of fire followed with the Israeli security forces, which caused three deaths on the Israeli side. The Egyptian was also killed in this conflict.

The Israeli Armed Forces later announced that three members of the Army had been killed in an exchange of fire with an Egyptian policeman, believed to have carried out the initial attack. Soldiers sought him out and killed him in a shootout, according to the Israeli military.

During the search after the two dead Israeli soldiers were found, Israeli soldiers located the attacker on Israeli soil, the Armed Forces said in a statement, and in the ensuing exchange of fire, the attacker and an Israeli soldier were killed, the announcement specified.

Of the two soldiers killed in the initial attack, one was a woman, 19-year-old Leah Ben Noon, the Israeli military said, as the Israeli Army unit that patrols the Israeli-Egyptian border includes both men and women.

The Israeli military has also launched an investigation to determine how the Egyptian police officer managed to get past the metre-high fence along that border, a military spokesman said.

He adds that there are still blurry areas regarding the two incidents and investigations are ongoing to determine whether other attackers managed to infiltrate Israeli territory.

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