The Foreign Ministry has asked the Israel Defense Force to look into reports that Israeli troops killed Egyptian prisoners of war during the Sinai Campaign of 1956.
The ministry’s directive came after Egyptian demands for clarification of reports earlier this month in the Israeli media.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa was quoted by Egyptian media as saying that formal contacts had been established with Israeli officials.
“We are trying to determine who was responsible for these crimes,” he reportedly said.
Earlier this month, a Jerusalem weekly quoted a retired IDF general as saying that he had killed dozens of Egyptian prisoners of war captured after an Israeli offensive in the Sinai Peninsula during the war.
Retired Gen. Arieh Biro said his troops were stranded behind Egyptian lines with more than 40 Egyptian prisoners when they were given the order to move south in the Sinai.
“I didn’t have soldiers to guard them,” he reportedly said. “We had to move on to Ras Sudar, so I decided to liquidate them.”
Biro’s commanding officers at the time were Ariel Sharon, a Likud member of Knesset and former defense minister, and Rafael Eitan, a Tsomet member of the Knesset and a former IDF chief of staff.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
