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Incident

Over 350 hurt in Israel embassy protest in Cairo

17 May 2011 04:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. More than 350 people were injured in a protest outside Israel’s embassy in Cairo to mark the displacement of Palestinians at the 1948 creation of the Jewish state, the Egyptian state news agency said on Monday, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
In a sign Egypt’s uprising has emboldended many protesters to voice their grievances, several hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the embassy late on Sunday on the anniversary of what many Arabs call the "Nakba," or catastrophe.
Police fired tear gas to force back demonstrators who broke through a barricade in front of the embassy, witnesses said on Sunday. The army detained 186 people after the confrontation, the MENA news agency reported.
Egypt’s interim military rulers have come under popular pressure to take a more pro-Palestinian stance since mass protests ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, and have been more reluctant to rely on the deposed leader’s heavy-handed tactics to quash demonstrations.
Many Egyptians regarded Mubarak, a U.S. ally, as too soft on Israel.
"Always, there have been feelings against Israeli policies, but what happened yesterday is a direct effect of the Egyptian revolution," said Emad Gad, a senior researcher at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Thousands of Egyptians poured into the streets of Cairo, Alexandria and El-Arish on Friday, waving Palestinian flags and chanting for their government to do more to help Palestinians.
Medical officials were quoted as saying 353 people were injured outside the embassy on Sunday, of which 45 were transferred to Cairo hospitals.
"The injuries varied from suffocation caused by tear gas and bruises to minor injuries caused by shoving," MENA quoted a senior health ministry official, Abdel Hamid Abaza, as saying.
Bracing for more tension, Egypt’s authorities stepped up security around the offices of Israeli airline El Al at Cairo’s main airport following the embassy demonstrations, MENA reported.
"It should be noted that the Israeli company El Al organises daily flights between Cairo and Tel Aviv, and has witnessed a reduction in its number of passengers since the January 25 revolution," it wrote.