An Israeli source said today, Thursday, that a helicopter carrying members of the US-led peace-keeping force crashed in the Egyptian Sinai, in an accident that killed 7 members of that force.
The multinational force mission office and observers in Israel confirmed that there had been a helicopter accident, but declined to add further comments pending an investigation.
The French Press Agency quoted an Israeli source as saying that the dead were 5 Americans, a French and a Czech, and that they were all members of the international force tasked with monitoring the implementation of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel signed in 1979.
The Israeli source did not mention whether the helicopter crash on Thursday was due to an attack or was an accident.
For his part, Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said, "The Israeli army offered to help an elite unit to rescue the wounded" immediately.
"We are seriously investigating the crash of one of our helicopters today," said Brad Lynch, a senior UN force official from Cairo, Egypt.
The official Israeli television station, I24 (I24), citing unnamed sources, said that “the transfer of the injured, which was to be undertaken by the Israeli army to Soroka Hospital in the city of Beersheba, southern Israel, has been canceled, after it became clear that a number of the wounded had died. As a result of the injury, the condition of the rest of the injured is minor, and they were treated at the scene of the accident. "
There was no official Israeli statement about the incident.
The mission of the multinational force and observers was established after the conclusion of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty in 1979, with the participation of forces from the United States, Australia, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Fiji, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Britain and Uruguay, and its headquarters is located in Rome.
This force currently includes a little more than 1100 soldiers of various nationalities deployed in the Sinai.