Hundreds rally in Cairo to demand Israeli ambassador's expulsion

Aug 26, 2011, 12:42 GMT

Cairo- Hundreds of Egyptians gathered Friday outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo calling on the government to expel Israel's ambassador over the border incident last week when five Egyptian policemen were killed by Israeli forces.

The police deaths occurred on August 19 during an Israeli shootout with Palestinian militants near the Egyptian border, following attacks on an Israeli military bus and other vehicles killed eight.

'The people want the right of our martyrs in Sinai be regained,' protesters, holding the Egyptian flags, chanted outside the embassy amid tight security.

Others shouted: 'The people's first demand is to have the ambassador evicted.'

One of the protesters shot in the air and managed to leave the scene before police could arrest him, according to witnesses.

On Sunday, a young Egyptian managed to climb the building housing the embassy and hauled down the Israeli flag amid cheers from protesters.

The man, nicknamed Egypt's spiderman, has since been given a job and an apartment by the governor of his Nile Delta province in appreciation of his act, according to local newspapers Friday.

'We will continue our protests until Israel makes an explicit official apology for the killing of the five policemen and the Israeli ambassador is evicted from Cairo,' Ahmed Maher of the protest group the April 6 told the German Press Agency dpa in an earlier interview.

Egypt described as 'insufficient' an apology from Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak who said his country 'regrets' the deaths.

Barak also said that the circumstances of the killings would be examined jointly with the Egyptian army.

The current crisis is the worst between Egypt and Israel since they signed their peace treaty in 1979.

Read more about Egypt