An IDF soldier standing guard at a military base in the Golan Heights. Photo: wiki commons.

Just before Said Phashpashe was killed on Monday morning by terrorists along the Egypt-Israel border,  he managed to tell his brother on the phone that something was wrong.

“They’re shooting at us”, he told his brother, according to Israel’s Channel 2 News.

Seconds later, the phone connection dropped and a rocket propelled grenade hit the vehicle he was traveling in, killing him and causing the car to flip over.

Phashpashe, an Israeli-Arab, was a contractor for Israel’s Defense Ministry and was in the process of helping to construct a security fence along Israel’s border with Egypt.

A cousin of Phashpashe told Israeli media that family members who worked as contractors along the border were aware of the risks they took “but we never talked about it”.

“The Defense Ministry expresses its condolences to the family of the employee who  lost his life during the incident this morning,” the ministry said. “We will continue to act with determination to complete the fence on the Egyptian border while providing maximum protection for workers.”