The Egyptian policeman who carried out the shooting attack on Saturday against IDF soldiers was buried Sunday evening in Egypt in a quiet funeral with very few participants. He murdered three IDF soldiers guarding a largely peaceful border, Lia Ben-Nun, Uri Iloz, and Ohad Dahan. The terrorist's family buried him in the Al-Qalioubia district in northern Egypt, the area where he was born. According to Egyptian media, the burial ceremony was limited to the presence of a small number of people, this at Israel's request, however social media accounts linked to Palestinian groups have been sharing funeral videos that seem to show a large presence and celebrations of victory for the martyr. Considering some of the videos look different that others, it is fair to assume these are manufactured for propaganda purposes.
Israel handed over Muhammad Salah Ibrahim’s body to Egypt, as part of the summaries and coordination of the investigation of the incident by Israel and Egypt. The Egyptian government avoided attributing to him the image of a martyr and did not even publish his name and details, to prevent his glorification and out of fear of copycat actions that would undermine stability and peace on the border with Israel. The small burial ceremony was also intended to reduce his publicity around the policeman because his action caused embarrassment to the Egyptian government.
#Egypt’s Sisi and #Israel’s #Netanyahu discussed the cross-border, cross-fire incident that took place on 3 June where an Egyptian policeman killed 3 IDF soldiers. They stressed the “importance of total coordination” in their investigations #الجندى_المصرى pic.twitter.com/WVRvmdVjBc
— Farid Y. Farid (@FaridYFarid) June 6, 2023
The terrorist, Muhammad Salah Ibrahim who was 22, enlisted in the Egyptian army in 2022 and served as a policeman on the border with Israel. Official media claimed that this was a disobedient soldier who complained about his service, was absent from the base for several days, and suffered from mental problems following the death of his unit comrade. During a recent IDF operation, he published a post on social media in which he wrote "Allah stands by Palestine", next to the tagline "Gaza under attack".
Sinai honors the Egyptian soldier with a majestic funeral, and tells all Arabs that the great people of Egypt will remain with Palestine and its people and will sacrifice it with pure blood until the demise of "Israel" from existence.#جندي_مصري #سيناء pic.twitter.com/al9YEDOCUL
— Mzemo (@MyMzemo) June 4, 2023
Despite the Egyptian attempts to keep publicity at a minimum, the Fatah movement in Nablus decided, following his support for attacks against Israel, to organize a memorial ceremony in honor of the terrorist, and also in Jenin, the terrorist organizations held an event in honor of the terrorist who was presented as a hero and martyr.
Magnificent funeral of the brave Egyptian soldier who was martyred in holy war for the liberation of Palestine pic.twitter.com/MwobKy7AEp
— Middle East News (@Draganov313) June 4, 2023
The terrorist was presented on social media by numerous Palestinian accounts as a brave soldier and a hero who managed to strike the Israeli army. "Even if one person participated in your burial, the entire Arab world stands behind you," one user wrote. "All Arabs perceive Muhammad Salah as a hero," wrote commentator Muhammad Gamal, "the occupying Zionist entity received a message from the Arab world through Salah's action that we will never normalize our relationship with it." Also, under the hashtags "The Heroic Soldier" and "Mohammed Salah", photos of the Egyptian policeman and the Al-Aqsa Mosque behind him were published on Twitter.
