A soldier was wounded late Monday in a firefight with apparent drug smugglers along the Egyptian border, the Israel Defense Forces announced.

A statement from the army said around 20 suspects, some of them armed, arrived to the Nitzana area in apparent attempt to smuggle narcotics into Israel.

Troops engaged in a gun battle with the suspects, hitting several of them, the IDF said.

One of the soldiers was moderately hurt during the exchange of fire and taken to a hospital, according to the military. Her condition has since improved and she was listed as lightly wounded.

Drug smuggling incidents on the Egyptian border are frequent, and at times include shooting by the smugglers at Israeli forces.

After the shootout, a pair of security sources and Egypt’s Al Qahera News TV said Egypt thwarted a drug smuggling.

During the incident in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, six drug smugglers were arrested south of Al-Awja border crossing — known in Israel as the Nitzana crossing — the security sources added.

The Nitzana crossing is just over 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Rafah, the main crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Nitzana is where aid deliveries for Gaza are currently being inspected before entering the Strip amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which was sparked by the terror group’s onslaught three months ago in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken hostage.