Protesters enraged by border killings CAIRO—Egypt withdrew its ambassador from Israel Saturday, saying that the killing of five Egyptian security personnel as Israeli forces pursued cross-border raiders was a breach of its 1979 peace treaty with the Jewish state. The violence, following attacks inside Israel which killed eight Israelis, has sparked the gravest crisis in Israeli-Egyptian ties since Hosni Mubarak's overthrow in February. Egypt “lays on Israel the political and legal responsibility for this incident, which constitutes a breach of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel”, the cabinet said in an official online statement. The official news agency MENA said the Egyptian death toll in Thursday's violence had risen to five after two of seven wounded security personnel died of their injuries. A few hundred Egyptians kept up a protest at the Israeli embassy in Cairo that began Friday night, when they burned Israeli flags and tore down metal barriers. Banging on the barriers, they demanded the expulsion of the Israeli envoy. The cabinet ordered the foreign minister to summon the Israeli ambassador and demand an official apology from Israeli leaders for statements accusing Egyptian military rulers of losing their grip on the Sinai peninsula. A senior Israeli defence official said Israel sees its treaty with Egypt as a “fundamental element of existence”. “One thing is sure, there is not a single person in Israel who wants to harm an Egyptian policeman or soldier,” Amos Gilad, a liaison officer with the Palestinians and Egypt, said on Israel Radio. He said an investigation had not yet determined who had killed the Egyptian security personnel, adding that ties with Egypt were based on “dialogue and cooperation”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was consulting cabinet ministers about a potential response, said an official who asked not to be named, referring to relations with Egypt.
