TEL AVIV, Israel, March 5 (UPI) -- An Israeli minister postponed a trip to Egypt following allegations that he commanded soldiers who killed Egyptian prisoners of war.
Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer had scheduled a one-day trip Thursday to discuss plans for a pipeline that would carry Egyptian gas to Israel, his adviser Ronen Moshe told United Press International.
However, Israel's Channel 1 TV last week broadcast a program in which soldiers of the Shaked reconnaissance unit said that during the 1967 war they had killed 250 prisoners of war in the Sinai. Ben-Eliezer was their commander.
The report caused an uproar in Egypt. There were demands in Parliament to expel Israel's ambassador, recall the Egyptian ambassador to Israel and cancel the gas agreement.
A Yediot Aharonot reporter said Ben-Eliezer had told her that the chief of Egyptian intelligence, Gen. Omar Suleiman suggested postponing the trip. Moshe denied the report.
In a written statement Ben Eliezer said the killed men belonged to a Palestinian battalion, not an Egyptian one. "They were not murdered as was reported but we killed during a battle," he added.
The program's producer, Ran Adelist, denied reporting the interviewed soldiers said they had killed Egyptian prisoners of war.
"Because of these reports, that are incorrect, and because of the atmosphere that is not conducive to a visit, both sides have decided to postpone the visit to another date expected soon," Moshe said.
Claims that Israeli soldiers killed Egyptian soldiers who laid down their arms surface occasionally. Israeli soldiers taken prisoner near the Suez Canal in the 1973 war said Egyptian soldiers had killed some of their comrades after they surrendered. In the past there were suggestions the Egyptian authorities would therefore like to let the matter rest.
