CAIRO: Over 100 protesters rallied in front of the Israeli embassy on Sunday, continuing protests that began Friday to condemn the Israeli killing of five Egyptian soldiers, stressing that the Israeli defense minister’s “regret” for the incident was not enough.
“Egyptian blood isn’t for free,” the protesters chanted, calling passerby to join them.
According to media reports the numbers of protesters reach around 1,000 after iftar.
Protesters demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, recalling the Egyptian ambassador in Israel, halting the export of Egyptian gas to Israel and renegotiating the Camp David peace treaty.
“We don’t want any Israeli entity on our land,” Nabila Salam, 49, told Daily News Egypt.
The protesters stood under the scorching heat and the fluttering Egyptian flag which replaced the Israeli flag on top of the building housing the embassy.
On Saturday, night Mohamed El-Shahat, dubbed “Egyptian Spiderman” and “Flagman” on twitter, had climbed the 21-floor building to exchange the flags.
“If the building was 100 floors high and not 21, I would have still climbed it,” El-Shahat said at a press conference at the Journalists’ Syndicate on Sunday.
A house-painting contractor, El-Shahat said he just wanted to bring happiness to the Egyptian people.
“All Egyptians slept soundly because of what I did,” he said.
El-Shehat said that he had never expressed his opinion freely before the revolution, and that the revolution gave the people their voice back.
The demonstrators voiced his sentiments, saying that the Egyptian people have changed after the revolution, and their blood will no longer go to waste.
“We will not stand silent at the killing of our soldiers,” Basma Atef, 21, told DNE.
Protesters demanded that more Egyptian troops and tanks be allowed in Sinai to protect the Egyptian borders from militant attacks.
Based on the historical peace accord, Egypt can only deploy 750 army soldiers at the border where neither helicopters nor boats are allowed.
Last week, however, around 1,000 Egyptian soldiers were deployed for a special operation targeting militants in the area.
Some of protesters called on the Supreme Council of Armed Forced (SCAF) to take a stronger stance against Israel.
They brushed off claims that Egypt wasn’t ready to start a war with Israel, as it was going through a critical transitional phase towards democracy.
“If every Egyptian held a bucket of water and threw it on the Israeli’s, we will beat them,” Mostafa Selim, 26 from Assiut said, adding that, “Israel is weak.”
However, when one protester attempted to criticize the army, the rest silenced him chanting, “the people and the army are one hand.”
Mahmoud Mohamed, 52, stood among the crowd holding a wooden model of the freedom Flotilla which was attacked by Israel last year while it was carrying aid to Gaza, with an Israeli helicopter set up on top of the model flotilla.
“This incident reminds us of the Israeli aggression against the freedom Flotilla,” Mohamed explained, adding that Israel is used to violating the rights of others and then apologizing.
“Their apology isn’t enough,” he said.
On Saturday afternoon, the foreign ministry summoned Israel’s charge d’affairs for a reprimand.
The envoy, who was summoned because the ambassador is outside the country, read out a statement by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressing regret for the deaths and offering a joint probe, Egypt’s foreign ministry said.
Many political powers and human rights organizations condemned Israel’s “Brutal attack” on Egypt’s armed forces on Sunday, stressing that Mubarak’s reign, known for its subordination to Israel, has ended.
In a joint statement issued on Sunday by 13 political parties, movements and human rights organizations including the April 6 Youth Movement, the Coalition of the Youth of the Revolution, the Democratic Front Party and Hisham Mubarak law Center, reiterated the demands of the protesters.
The statement added that Egyptians must unite and solve their internal issues to confront Israel’s attempt to sway Egyptians from protecting their revolution.
The internal issues include ending military trials for civilians, and exposing the remnants of the former corrupt regime, described as “the eyes and tools” of Israel.
The April 6 Youth Movement announced in a statement on Saturday that it would join the open sit-in until the protesters demands are met.
Another joint statement, issued by a number of presidential hopefuls and parties, including Amr Moussa, Ayman Nour, Hisham El-Bastawisi, Abdel Monem Aboul Fotouh, Al-Wasat and Al-Wafd parties described the incident as an “example of Israel’s arrogance and racism, supported by America.”
They called for preventing Israeli ships from crossing the Suez Canal, prosecuting those accused of killing the Egyptian soldiers as well as the Israeli officials who gave them orders before Egyptian courts, and notifying the UN Security Council of Israel’s violations.
In a related note Al-Karama Party slammed SCAF and the cabinet for its “inappropriate” response to the Israeli aggression.
Egypt’s cabinet said on Sunday that an Israeli statement expressing regret for the border deaths of five policemen was not enough but stopped short of saying if it would recall its Tel Aviv envoy.
On its part, The Egyptian Block, a group of 14 liberal parties, expressed its full support for Egypt’s armed forces and called on the people to unite and support it in the face of any aggression, while condemning the Israeli attack.
