Eighty diplomats and family members of Israel’s Embassy in Cairo are safe after being removed in an emergency rescue operation, following violent protests against the diplomatic mission of the Jewish state in Egypt. During a riot outside the Embassy on Friday night, violent protesters broke down the 8-foot-high security wall surrounding the compound and entered the building. Four protestors were killed by Egyptian security forces in the incident.
Once the riots turned violent, Israel’s ambassador to Egypt, Embassy staff, their families and Israelis staying at the mission were evacuated to Cairo’s airport and returned to Israel on a special Israel Air Force flight. Six employees stranded in the building were later removed by an Egyptian commando unit during a special rescue operation in which the men reportedly dressed in Arab kaffiyeh headdresses.
More than 1,000 Egyptians demonstrated at the Embassy, many after a group on ‘Facebook’ called on protesters to gather at the Embassy and “urinate on the wall,” the Israeli news service ‘Ynet’ reported. During the demonstration, protesters tore down the Israeli flag from the high-rise building’s roof for the second time in a month.
In a televised address on Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Middle East was “now undergoing a political earthquake of historic proportions.” He added that Israel would work with Egypt to return its ambassador to Cairo. “We will continue to keep the peace with Egypt. This is in the common interest of both countries,” Netanyahu declared. “We will work toward preventing a further deterioration in our relationship with Turkey. We did not choose this sequence of events. To the extent that the matter depends upon us, we shall act to lower tensions and do everything possible to restore relations,” he said.
Netanyahu praised the United States for intervening with Egypt in order to rescue the Israelis. “I would like to express my gratitude to the president of the United States, Barack Obama. I asked for his help. This was a decisive and fateful moment. He said, ‘I will do everything I can.’ And so he did. He used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us. We owe him a special measure of gratitude.”
Leaders from around the world condemned the riots. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Egypt’s authorities to take the necessary measures to normalize the situation. In a statement issued in Brussels on Saturday, Ashton said: “I condemn the invasion of diplomatic premises and the destruction of Embassy property. I regret the loss of life and express my sympathy with the families of the dead and the injured.”
