Updated on
Summary Egypt will recall ambassador to Israel over ambush of three Egyptian troops.
Egypt said Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of at least three Egyptian troops killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants who had launched a deadly attack on Israel from Egyptian soil.The decision sharply escalated tensions between the neighbouring countries, whose 1979 peace treaty is being tested by the fall of Egypts longtime autocratic leader, Hosni Mubarak.Egypts interim government accused Israel of violating that treaty and demanded an apology, saying the envoy would be withdrawn until Israel concludes its investigation into the Egyptian security forces deaths. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Israeli government was holding consultations on the Egyptian move.The Cabinet, which was appointed by the ruling military council that took over power after Mubaraks ouster, revised an earlier statement saying the envoy, Yasser Reda, would be summoned for consultation something that would have signaled a lower-level spat. Israel was likely to see that as a worrisome sign that Egypts new leaders would be more responsive to public opinion about the Jewish state, which remains overwhelmingly unpopular because of its conflict with the Palestinians.Israeli officials insisted the peace treaty was stable despite the rocky developments.No one had any intention to harm Egyptian security personnel, Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official who works closely with Egypt, told Israel Radio. The question is what happened in the field and that is what is being investigated.The cross-border attack has raised concerns about the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, whose porous borders with both Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip make it an attractive staging ground for Palestinian militant attacks on Israel. Israel says Gaza militants armed with guns, explosives, mortars and an anti-tank missile, killed eight Israelis in a roadside ambush on Thursday after infiltrating Israel through Sinai.The ambush also has threatened to stoke the Mideast conflict as retaliatory violence between Israel and Gaza militants spiked. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 12 Palestinians, most of them militants, Friday in Gaza, and nine Israelis were wounded by Palestinian rockets fired into southern Israel.
