Residents of Eilat dropped hundreds of wreaths into the waters off their resort town Saturday in memory of Shlomo Yisraeli, a local yachtsman killed a week ago in an encounter with the Egyptian coast guard.
Earlier, some 200 angry Eilat boat and truck owners attempted to shut down the Israeli Egyptian border crossing at Taba to protest the incident.
They planned to block the road with boat trailers, but were foiled by the Israeli police.
Yisraeli, 42, was fatally wounded when officers of the Egyptian coast guard fired what they said were warning shots at his charter yacht.
The Egyptians claimed Yisraeli’s boat invaded their territorial waters a few hundred yards off the Sinai shore. People aboard the craft insist it was in international waters at the time.
Both countries apparently consider the matter closed. The Israeli charge d’affaires in Cairo, David Aphek, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry last week to receive an official apology from Egypt.
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