Funeral for military conscript killed in Rafah exchange of fire held amid media gag

Dozens of residents of Agameyin village in Fayoum attended on Tuesday the funeral of Egyptian military conscript Abdullah Ramadan, 22, who was killed in an exchange of fire on Monday between Egyptian and Israeli forces on the border in Rafah.

Despite protocol, Ramadan did not receive a military funeral. An Egyptian Armed Forces statement made on Monday afternoon, hours after the incident, referred to “the martyrdom of one of the guarding elements” in Rafah and said that it is conducting an investigation “through the bodies concerned,” without saying more about the incident or identifying Ramadan.

This lack of official recognition of the funeral comes as the government pushes to tighten control over Egyptian media reporting of the incident, aiming to minimize its relevance in the public eye, four media sources told Mada Masr. The incident comes as tensions between Egypt and Israel peaked since Israel invaded Rafah three weeks ago, controlling the border facility between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. 

Different narratives of what happened have come out in the meantime.

An employee at the intelligence-affiliated United Media Services, which controls a majority of newspapers and television networks in Egypt, told Mada Masr that the company sent out instructions to all UMS outlets, especially its leading outlet, Al-Qahera News, on how to cover the incident.

The instructions, according to the source, were to limit coverage of the incident to official statements, not to air any phone-in commentary on the matter and to cease covering the story completely after quoting security sources. Employees were also asked not to post any information or personal opinions about the incident on their personal social media accounts.

State-owned newspapers and UMS channels appeared to abide by the media gag in coverage of the Monday incident. The morning issue of state-owned Al-Ahram did not refer to the incident. Neither did the print edition of Youm7. “The instructions are not to give the coverage too much space to not let the issue grow,” said a source at an independent daily newspaper, speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. Another source at a major state-owned daily outlet said, also on condition of anonymity, that “the instructions are to limit the coverage, to adhere to the Armed Forces’ statements, not to extend the commentary on the issue and to point out that, ‘this is not the first time; this also happened during the days of Hosni Mubarak.’”

Accordingly, Akhbar al-Youm cited the spokesperson of the Armed Forces, referring to the killed soldier at the end of the text. Only 34 words in the middle of its third page were dedicated to the incident. The same words were reproduced verbatim in other newspapers, though on different pages. The Armed Forces’ investigation, and not Ramadan’s death, was highlighted in the headlines. The UMS-affiliated Al-Watan also made a slight change by referring to the Armed Forces spokesperson’s statement on its front page, though still in a tiny column of under 30 words in length.

In an appearance on state-aligned news anchor Ahmed Moussa’s TV program, Military Expert Samir Farag linked the incident to the Mubarak-era shooting of Israeli tourists by Egyptian soldier Suleiman Khater, noting that the incident will not affect Egyptian-Israeli relations. He described relations as “very tense,” but stressed that the incident will not affect the peace agreement or Egyptian mediation between Israel and Hamas.

Al-Shorouk newspaper, owned by publisher Ibrahim al-Moallem, did not adhere to the media instructions, publishing the story on its front page under the title, “one of the personnel in charge of securing Rafah martyred.” The story adhered to the Armed Forces statement, however, without adding further information.

A government source speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity said that the Armed Forces decided to act as the only body issuing a statement on the matter, and that the statement was intentionally worded in calm language. Egyptian embassies were instructed not to escalate in discussions about the issue.

Breaking some of the official silence around the details of the incident, Moussa became the most prominent public official to name Ramadan, publishing a post on X that said there was a “large participation of the Armed Forces” at the funeral of “the heroic martyr Abdullah Ramadan” in Fayoum.

Narratives have varied since Monday on what caused Ramadan’s death. The latest official version of the story to emerge from Egypt, according to a security source quoted by Al-Qahera News, is that initial investigations showed that the incident started with fighting between Occupation forces and Palestinian resistance fighters near the border that “led to shots being fired in several directions and the Egyptian security personnel taking protective measures and dealing with the source of fire.”

Israeli broadcaster Kaan, on the other hand, reported that the Israeli investigation said the incident started with an Egyptian soldier firing at an Israeli force operating near a tunnel near the border, after which Israeli soldiers fired back, killing an Egyptian soldier and wounding others.

A slightly different and more detailed story emerged from Asharq News, which quoted Egyptian sources as saying that a group of Israeli personnel tried to cross a location near the Rafah crossing on the pretext of allegedly “chasing saboteurs” when an Egyptian soldier guarding a watchtower opened fire at them. In response, an Israeli tank shot at the tower, killing the soldier, at which point Egyptian personnel fired back, killing an Israeli soldier and wounding seven more. No other sources have reported any deaths on the Israeli side.

Fact-checking website Matsada2sh claimed on Tuesday that another Egyptian soldier, Islam Ibrahim Abdel Razek, 22, from Ezbet Gaballah village in Fayoum, was also killed yesterday in Rafah. Al-Qahera News later quoted a security source denying that a second soldier was killed in the incident.

A prior incident at the Egyptian-Israeli border in 2023 saw Egyptian conscript Mohamed Salah open fire on Israeli soldiers after breaking through an emergency passage in the barrier on the border. The incident led to the death of three Israeli soldiers. Israeli media outlets disclosed Salah’s identity.

Security also limited attendance at Salah’s funeral at the time.