Approximately 2000 people continued protesting around the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on Saturday after the Egyptian government decided to recall its ambassador to Israel.
The protesters called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and for severing relations with Israel. They wanted the Israeli flag at the top of the embassy's building taken down.
Protesters set off fireworks in the direction of the flag in an attempt to burn it.
They succeeded in removing all the cement and steel barricades around the embassy.
Police and army forces remained stationed at the entrance to the building and on the Gamaa Bridge to prevent protesters from breaking in.
No clashes erupted between the two sides.
Some protesters climbed a ladder propped up against a building opposite the embassy and hung the Egyptian flag out of a window.
The protesters said they will continue their sit-in until their demands are achieved in response to the killing of four conscripts and a policeman by an Israeli airplane at Egypt's borders with Israel on Thursday.
Protesters chanted, “The people want Camp David abolished” and “Field Marshall (Tantawi), you should kick out the ambassador or leave yourself.”
Most passersby expressed support for the protesters and flashed victory signs at them. Others were carrying the Egyptian and Palestinian flags. Drivers passing by honked their horns to the tune of a song that goes “Raise your head high, you’re Egyptian.”
The protesters ate sohour and performed the dawn prayers, a scene that would have been unlikely during the past 30 years as former President Hosni Mubarak's regime violently suppressed any protests in the area of the Israeli embassy.
Translated from the Arabic Edition
