Egyptians raged at an Israeli mistake that left three border policemen dead, and the Israeli army chief promised an investigation.
Following Friday prayers at Cairo's main mosque, the millennium-old Al-Azhar, about 100 protesters rallied under banners: "Don't forget Oct. 6, 1973," the day Egypt initiated its last war with Israel, or, "The pigs' apology doesn't quench our rage."
Police in riot gear and in plainclothes kept a close watch on the crowd as speakers denounced both the shooting and trouble elsewhere in the Middle East, chiefly the chaos in Iraq following the US-led invasion of Iraq.
In Egypt, the Al-Azhar protest echoed comments by Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa on Thursday, that the killing of the three Egyptians was "a new element added to the deteriorating situation in the region."
Anger here already was widespread at what is seen as Israel's heavy-handed response to the Palestinian uprising. Egyptian protesters periodically call on their government to tear up its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the first between an Arab government and the Jewish state.
Egyptian editor Emad Gad, whose monthly Israeli Digest about Arab-Israeli affairs is seen as close to the government, said that despite the public uproar, the shooting would not escalate into a bilateral crisis.
Gad said Egyptian government officials, aware of the importance of Egypt's role in an Israeli plan to withdraw from Gaza and in helping the US revive the Arab-Israeli peace process, would ensure reaction to the shooting "will be carefully guided."
In a cool official response to the border shooting that may have been meant as much for domestic as Israel consumption, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Thursday issued a formal protest and demanded an investigation. The ministry statement made no mention of whether Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's apology, delivered in a call to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, had been accepted.
Israel's swift apology and pledge to find out why the shooting happened was derided in some Egyptian quarters Friday.
The liberal opposition daily Al-Wafd declared in a front-page headline that Egyptians "rejected" the apology. The independent Al Masri Al Youm said in an editorial: "An apology, no matter how many artificial words or how much grief it contains, doesn't heal an attack on the nations' honor."
Pro-government Al-Ahram carried interviews with relatives and friends of the three young policemen who were killed -- Amer Abu Bakr Amer, Hani Ali Sobhi al-Naggar and Mohammed Abdel Fattah.
Ezzat Ramadan, a friend of Amer's, was quoted as demanding trials of those responsible and saying: "All our village rejects the Israeli apology."
The shooting came at a particularly sensitive time in Israeli-Egyptian relations.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit was to travel to Israel next week to discuss, among other things, Sharon's plans to withdrawn from the Gaza Strip.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday said it deployed aircraft to issue radio warnings to a Chinese research ship in a disputed area of the South China Sea “swarming” with vessels from Beijing’s so-called maritime militia. The research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 33 (向陽紅33), which is capable of supporting submersible craft, was operating near a reef in the contested Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), which Taiwan also claims, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The Chinese ship was deploying a service boat toward the Spratly’s Iroquois Reef on Wednesday when it was spotted by a coast guard plane, “confirming ongoing unauthorized [marine scientific research]
New Zealand is open to expanding its frigate fleet beyond its current two vessels, with New Zealand Minister of Defence Chris Penk saying “no options are off the table” as the government weighs buying new warships from Japan or the UK. The government yesterday said it is looking to replace its two aging Anzac-class frigates, which were both commissioned almost 30 years ago. The UK’s Type 31 and Japan’s Mogami-class warships are the options under consideration. Speaking in an interview, Penk said there is potential to increase the number of frigates the nation purchases. “We need a certain amount of capability as a
RSS