Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi on Wednesday warned his armed forces and the general public to rein in their anger and enthusiasm, in an apparent reference to the outrage felt in Egypt at the Israeli military onslaught on neighbouring Gaza.

The official narrative in which an Israeli tank “accidentally” hit an Egyptian military post on the border with Israel over the weekend has been met with doubts in Egypt as Israel ramps up a non-stop, deadly and indiscriminate bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip for the third consecutive week.

The military spokesperson for the Egyptian army confirmed in a Sunday evening statement that some members of an Egyptian border control tower were accidentally injured by shrapnel from an Israeli tank.

Israel’s Defence Force (IDF) announced in a statement on Twitter that an IDF tank accidentally opened fire and hit an Egyptian post adjacent to the border in the Kerem Shalom region on Sunday evening, 22 October.

The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee vowed on Saturday to block military aid and arms sales to Egypt if it does not take concrete steps to improve human rights in the country, Reuters reported.

US military assistance to Egypt is facing increased scrutiny following allegations that Sen. Bob Menendez used his influence in Congress to secretly aid the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Journalist Ariane Lavrilleux authored a report that said French intelligence had been misused by Egypt to target smugglers on the Libyan border and kill civilians.

The US government has for the first time included Egypt in its list of countries employing child soldiers, focusing primarily on the North Sinai region where Egypt has been battling an insurgency for about a decade.

Seven Egyptian soldiers were killed in an explosion at an air defence base in North Sinai on Sunday, The New Arab’s Arabic-language site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed has reported.

The Biden administration has allowed much of US foreign military aid to Egypt to go ahead, saying the country was vital for US national security interests, despite what critics have said about widespread human rights abuses, Reuters reports.