The circumstances behind the shooting that occurred close to where the borders of Israel and Gaza meet Egypt are unknown. The migrants apparently were caught up in a gunfight between Egyptian security forces and Bedouin smugglers as they were about to enter Israel illegally say security and hospital officials, according to Haaretz.
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The bodies of 15 African migrants were found Sunday by Egyptian police near the country’s border with Israel, the Arabic news site Al Arabiya News reported.
“We also found eight Africans who were wounded but whose condition is stable”.
The Israeli government claims most Africans arriving on Israel’s southern border are economic migrants – a claim fiercely disputed by human rights groups.
Many say they are fleeing conflict and persecution and are seeking refugee status.
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
In 2013, Israel launched a crackdown on what it said were 60,000 undocumented African migrants, rounding up and deporting 3,920 by the end of the year, and building a hi-tech fence along the border with Egypt.
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Fifteen Sudanese refugees were killed and eight others injured in violence on the Egypt-Israel border. It wasn’t clear what happened to the remaining 20-odd members of the group.
