Days of Palestine – Cairo
The Egyptian Embassy in “Tel Aviv” has been assigned to communicate with the Israeli occupation authorities to clarify what is being circulated in Israeli press reports concerning “historical facts” that occurred during the 1967 War about “Egyptian soldiers buried in Al-Quds city [Jerusalem],” Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Ahmed Hafez said in a statement issued on Sunday.
“The Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv has been assigned to communicate with the Israeli authorities to clarify what is being circulated in the media, call for an investigation to verify the credibility of this information, and urgently inform the Egyptian authorities of the relevant details,” the statement reads.
Earlier Friday, Haaretz Hebrew newspaper published archival material and interviews with residents recounting how dozens of Egyptian soldiers killed in the battle may be buried there.
According to the reports, about 80 Egyptian soldiers killed during the war were buried under what is now a popular Israeli tourist park.
Israeli Army ‘Burned 20 Egyptian Soldiers Alive’, Looted Their Belongings
An Israeli journalist specializing in security affairs on Friday revealed that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burnt alive by the Israeli army during the 1967 war.
In a series of tweets, journalist Yossi Melman wrote: “After 55 years of heavy censorship, I can reveal that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burnt alive and buried by IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) in a mass grave, which wasn’t marked and without being identified contrary to war laws, in Latrun. It happened during the Six-Day War.”
The website of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth published similar details narrated by Melman.
Breaking: Egypt’s President al-Sisi made a phone call with the Israeli PM, during which he raised the issue of the alleged mass grave of the Egyptian soldiers killed during 1967 War.
Israel’s PM ordered his military secretary to examine the issue in depth and to update Cairo.
— Mahmoud Gamal (@mahmouedgamal44) July 10, 2022
Melman stressed that late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, days before the outbreak of the war, had signed a joint defense agreement with the late King of Jordan Hussein bin Talal, who was in control of the West Bank at the time.
“Egypt deployed 2 commando battalions in the West Bank near Latrun, which was no man’s land. Their mission was to raid inside Israel and take over Lod and a nearby military airfield,” Melman said.
Latrun is located on the road between Jerusalem and Jaffa, about 25 kilometers (some 16 miles) west of Jerusalem. After the 1948 war, an agreement was reached between Israel and Jordan to make it a no-man’s land.
For over 5 decades, Israel has kept secret this mass grave – under a tourist parking lot – which held the bodies of Egyptian soldiers, some of whom were burned alive. #Egypt, these are your friends? https://t.co/qNs3SjFUb8
— Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) July 8, 2022
In the 1967 war, Israel occupied and annexed Latrun, which is today a suburb of West Jerusalem.
“Fire exchanges took place with the IDF troops and members of Kibbutz Nahshon. Some Egyptian troops fled, some were taken prisoners, and some bravely fought. At a certain point, IDF fired mortar shells and thousands of uncultivated dunams of wild bush in the dry summer were set on fire,” said Melman.
At least 20 Egyptian soldiers died in the bushfire that spread quickly and they had no chance to escape, Melman quoted Zeen Bloch (now 90 years old), who was the military commander of Nahshon, a left-wing Kibbutz – agricultural community – as telling him.
“The next day IDF soldiers equipped with a bulldozer came to the scene, dug a pit, pushed the Egyptian corpses and covered them with soil. Bloch and some Nahshon members watched with horror as soldiers looted personal belongings and left the mass grave unmarked,” the journalist said.
Melman noted: “The veil of silence suited everybody. The few who knew didn’t want to talk about it. We were ashamed. But above all, it was IDF’s decision in the heat of the war.”
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