EGYPT: A few hundred Egyptians protest for a second day outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo over the killing of security personnel

Record ID: 396682

  • Title: EGYPT: A few hundred Egyptians protest for a second day outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo over the killing of security personnel
  • Date: 21st August 2011
  • Summary: SIGN READING: 'DOWN WITH ISRAEL' VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING: 'COME JOIN US OUR PEOPLE' ARMY SOLDIERS ON TANKS GUARDING EMBASSY SOLDIERS SITTING ON A TANK (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) EGYPTIAN PROTESTER SAEED, SAYING: "My first message is to the Field Marshal and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces - if it was your children who were killed, your brothers or soldiers wh
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt, Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4F92ZET0L0R5NX166JYHV28AW
  • Story Text: A few hundred Egyptians continued to protest outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo for a second day on Saturday (August 20), and have vowed to do so until the Israeli ambassador to Egypt is forced out of his office.
    The protest began on Friday (August 19) after the death of three Egyptian security personnel killed when Israeli forces hunted for the gunmen behind Thursday's (August 18) attacks in southern Israel.
    Egypt said on Saturday it was withdrawing its ambassador from Israel pending an investigation by the Jewish state into the border killings that have raised tension between the two countries.
    Egyptian protesters burned Israeli flags and tore down metal barriers. Banging on the barriers, they demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.
    "If Israel thinks that things are like the days of the corrupt regime, when Egyptian soldiers were killed and we were forced to remain quiet, they're wrong, there has been a revolution and I want to tell Israel that one Egyptian soldier is worth ten Israeli soldiers," said an unnamed protester.
    Another protester, Saeed, said: "We, the men of the square, ousted the tyrant Hosni Mubarak, do you think it would be difficult for us to do same with a vile ambassador sitting upstairs? We're not leaving, this is the will of a people and he will leave."
    Egypt's cabinet also summoned the Israeli ambassador in Cairo in protest and demanded an official apology from Israeli leaders for statements accusing Egyptian military rulers of losing their grip on the Sinai Peninsula.
    An army officer and two Egyptian security men died when Israeli troops pursued gunmen who killed eight Israelis on a road running close to the Egyptian border on Thursday. Seven Egyptian security men were wounded.
    The incident has strained ties between Israel and Egypt following the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February and strengthened forces hostile to the Jewish state.
    A senior Israeli defence official said Israel sees its treaty with Egypt as a "fundamental element of existence" in the Middle East and had no intention of harming any of its security personnel in the incident, which was still under investigation.
    This is the second time that Egypt has recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv. In 2000, the Egyptian envoy was recalled over heavy Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip.
    Egypt and Israel sealed a peace treaty in 1979, agreed by former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, after fighting four wars since 1948.
    The Sinai forms a huge desert buffer zone between Egypt and Israel. Parts of their mountainous border remain porous.
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