Egypt Sends Team to Israel to Probe Killings in Negev

Egyptian authorities sent a team of investigators into the Negev on Tuesday for an on-site inspection of the border area where an Egyptian infiltrator killed three Israelis and wounded 23 others in a shooting spree early Sunday morning.

The Egyptians asked for permission Monday to pursue their investigation inside Israel as they continue with their interrogation of the captured assailant in Egypt.

The request, described as unprecedented, was passed on to Jerusalem by border liaison officers and immediately accepted.

The Egyptian team was accompanied by representatives of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israel Defense Force-Egyptian Army Joint Military Commission established under the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries.

The team spent the day interrogating Israeli witnesses to the shootings and visited the stretch of road parallel to the Egyptian border about 12 miles northwest of Eilat, where the assault took place.

The Egyptian ambassador in Tel Aviv, Mohammed Basiouny, said Monday that Egypt would turn over the Israel the final results of its probe as soon as the findings were ready.

The Israeli authorities seemed pleased by Egypt’s obvious determination to investigate the incident. According to Israeli military sources, “it stands in sharp contrast to Egyptian investigations of numerous past incidents involving the killing of Israelis on Egyptian soil.”

Israeli sources denied reports that Jerusalem demanded that Egypt allow Israeli investigators to participate in its inquiry in Egypt. The sources said such a demand could set a dangerous precedent for foreign elements to join in the Israeli probes of the Oct. 8 Temple Mount riots and other incidents involving Israelis and Palestinians.

The 22-year-old assailant, identified variously as Iman Mohammed Hassan or Mohammed Ayman Husni, was wounded in an exchange of fire with an Israeli bus guard but managed to flee back across the Egyptian border. He was apprehended and reportedly is in custody now in Suez City pending transfer to Cairo.

He is reported to have told his interrogators that he acted alone and belonged to no terrorist organization. That contradicts claims by the Islamic Jihad, a Moslem fundamentalist group, that he was carrying out their mission.

The assailant also was reported to have said he was motivated by revenge for the 17 Arabs slain by Israeli border police during the Temple Mount riots and by the “Israeli oppression of the Palestinians” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.