Israel promises full investigation after incident at border with Egypt

Israel buried on Sunday three soldiers killed in an exchange of fire at its usually secure border with Egypt.

In his weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the incident would be "thoroughly investigated".

A day earlier, three Israeli soldiers were killed in a confrontation with an alleged member of the Egyptian security forces.

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (male, Hebrew, 39 sec):

"We will draw all the necessary conclusions regarding our actions along the fence on the southern border, on the Israel-Egypt border. This fence that was built in 2013 stopped the flood of illegal infiltrators into Israel. However, smuggling is still happening and there are also attempts from time to time by terrorists to cross the fence and harm our forces. We will revisit the procedures, methods of operation and measures in order to minimise smuggling and ensure that such tragic attacks will not happen again", promised Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

In recent years, there have been exchanges of fire between smugglers and Israeli soldiers stationed along the border.

The border between the two countries is generally calm but has been the scene of regular smuggling attempts.