ID :
206471
Sun, 09/11/2011 - 09:45
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/206471
The shortlink copeid
Egyptians overrun Israeli embassy in Cairo
TEHRAN, Sept.11(MNA)-- Egyptians attacked the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on Friday and Saturday as thousands more demonstrated outside, prompting the ambassador and his family to flee the country.
Egyptian police made no attempt to intervene during the two days as crowds of hundreds tore down an embassy security wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands or after nightfall on Friday when about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building where the embassy is located.
Just before midnight on Friday, the group of protesters reached a room on one of the embassy's lower floors at the top of the building and began dumping Hebrew-language documents from the windows, said an Egyptian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Egypt has declared a state of alert. The embassy assault in the first attack of its kind since the Cairo and Tel Aviv made peace 32 years ago.
Egyptian officials said three people had been killed and more than 1,000 people injured in clashes between protesters and security forces near the embassy, following earlier peaceful demonstrations in Tahrir Square on Friday.
The protesters were holding a demonstration in the heart of Cairo against the slow pace of reforms by the current military council since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.
They had also been angered by Israel's killing of five Egyptian border guards last month during an operation targeting gunmen who reportedly had killed Israeli civilians in cross-border raids, media reports said.
The protesters demanded the closure of the Israeli embassy, an end to gas exports to Israel, and nullification of the Camp David agreement between the two countries.
A plane carrying Yitzhak Levanon, the Israeli ambassador, and around 80 others landed in Israel on Saturday, Israel Radio reported.
Six Israeli embassy security officers who were still in the building early on Saturday morning were later rescued by Egyptian commandos, and then sent back to Tel Aviv on a second plane from Cairo, said Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Jerusalem.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, but the situation has significantly changed since the Egyptian revolution, which toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak. A number of Egyptian political parties are now calling for changes to the peace treaty.
Under the U.S.-backed Mubarak regime, Egypt consistently served Israeli interests and objectives by helping to impose the crippling blockade on the impoverished Gaza Strip after Hamas, which won a democratic election in January 2006, took total control of the territory in June 2007.
Egyptian police made no attempt to intervene during the two days as crowds of hundreds tore down an embassy security wall with sledgehammers and their bare hands or after nightfall on Friday when about 30 protesters stormed into the Nile-side high-rise building where the embassy is located.
Just before midnight on Friday, the group of protesters reached a room on one of the embassy's lower floors at the top of the building and began dumping Hebrew-language documents from the windows, said an Egyptian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Egypt has declared a state of alert. The embassy assault in the first attack of its kind since the Cairo and Tel Aviv made peace 32 years ago.
Egyptian officials said three people had been killed and more than 1,000 people injured in clashes between protesters and security forces near the embassy, following earlier peaceful demonstrations in Tahrir Square on Friday.
The protesters were holding a demonstration in the heart of Cairo against the slow pace of reforms by the current military council since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.
They had also been angered by Israel's killing of five Egyptian border guards last month during an operation targeting gunmen who reportedly had killed Israeli civilians in cross-border raids, media reports said.
The protesters demanded the closure of the Israeli embassy, an end to gas exports to Israel, and nullification of the Camp David agreement between the two countries.
A plane carrying Yitzhak Levanon, the Israeli ambassador, and around 80 others landed in Israel on Saturday, Israel Radio reported.
Six Israeli embassy security officers who were still in the building early on Saturday morning were later rescued by Egyptian commandos, and then sent back to Tel Aviv on a second plane from Cairo, said Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Jerusalem.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, but the situation has significantly changed since the Egyptian revolution, which toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak. A number of Egyptian political parties are now calling for changes to the peace treaty.
Under the U.S.-backed Mubarak regime, Egypt consistently served Israeli interests and objectives by helping to impose the crippling blockade on the impoverished Gaza Strip after Hamas, which won a democratic election in January 2006, took total control of the territory in June 2007.
