Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit has called on Israeli authorities to make an urgent interrogation and to submit a full-dressed report on the killing by an Israeli army unit of Egyptian prisoners of war POWs during the war of 1967.

The Foreign Minister said that Israel should seriously look to this issue and take the proper measure in order to get the confidence of the Egyptian people.

The Foreign Minister, who returned from Tunisia yesterday, said that cutting off relations with Israel is not the optimal approach, reiterating Egypt's capability to talk, communicate and absorb such issues.

The documentary which was handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contains statements by veterans in Shakid Unit which is accused of killing the Egyptian prisoners of war in which they claimed that the work of the unit should not be looked at under today's circumstances but rather in the light of the circumstances they were exposed to in the past.

The documentary contains confessions by Ben Eliezer, the commander of the unit from 1966 until 1970 and the current Minister of Infrastructures in which he said that the unit was lacking military discipline.

The documentary quotes a Lt. Colonel who worked in the unit until 1965 as saying that when the war broke out in 1967, the unit was assigned to follow up the Egyptian commandos in Sinai and after the end of war, the unit was assigned to follow up an Egyptian commando unit which deployed in Gaza and withdrew through Sinai.


The documentary included a statement by another Lt. Colonel who served at Shakid unit who said the Israeli army supplied the unit with two helicopters and other two military aircraft for searching for the Egyptian commandos.

The Israeli officer said the Egyptian soldiers were attacked and killed adding after two days, the number of those killed was 250.

The documentary showed another colonel who said that the unit contained junior officers who were unable to make an assessment of the situation.

The colonel said every one who took part the unit was acting without waiting for orders.

On his part Benjamin Ben Eliezer said it was impossible to allow the Egyptian unit to remain.

In a bid to justify what took place, Israeli Jerusalem Post newspaper quoted the producer of the film as confessing that soldiers who were killed were not Egyptians but rather Palestinians.

The producer used arechieves of Egyptian soldiers instead of Palestinian soldiers by mistake. The question now is how can the Israeli producer commit these mistakes which could help trigger a sharp crisis with Egypt.