Egypt recalls ambassador to Israel in protest over border police deaths

Egypt said Saturday it will recall its ambassador to Israel in protest over the killing of five police officers in a shoot out between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces on the border.

"The Egyptian ambassador to Israel will be withdrawn until we are notified about the results of an investigation by the Israeli authorities," the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement, the Guardian reported.

Reinforcements will be deployed "to respond to any Israeli military activity at the Egyptian borders," the statement added.

The move to recall the ambassador, the first time Egypt has done so in more than a decade, comes amid concern that the interim government in Cairo could take a harder line against Israel than the ousted US-backed Mubarak regime.

Egypt – the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel – has also demanded an investigation into Thursday's incident and an apology for the deaths of the police officers.

Thousands of protesters rallied at the Israeli embassy in Cairo for a second day to demand the expulsion of the Israeli envoy.

The police were killed as Israeli forces pursued Palestinian gunmen blamed for an attack on buses near the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat that left eight people dead.

(Earlier on GlobalPost: Hamas ends truce with Israel)

There have been conflicting reports from Egypt and Israel about how the police died.

A military official told Egypt's official MENA news agency on Thursday that they were killed in stray Israeli helicopter fire targeting the suspected Palestinian militants, AFP reported.

But state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper later quoted a military official as saying the officers were killed by gunmen trying to cross the border from Israel after the bus attack.

Information Minister Osama Heykal was quoted as saying by MENA the deaths occurred "inside Egyptian territory as a result of an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and armed elements," the Guardian reported.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, in a Facebook update, signaled that the new Egyptian interim government would be tougher on Israel than the ousted Mubarak regime had been.

"Our glorious revolution took place so that Egyptians could regain their dignity at home and abroad. What was tolerated in pre-revolution Egypt will not be in post-revolution Egypt," he said.

Egyptian presidential hopeful Amr Moussa said Israel "must understand that the day our sons get killed without a strong and an appropriate response is gone and will not come back."

Israeli officials have said an investigation is under way into the incident and have dismissed fears that the 1979 peace treaty, a pillar of Middle East security, is in jeopardy.