Egyptians break into Israel Embassy in Cairo

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Egyptians break into Israel Embassy in Cairo

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A group of about 30 protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.

10 September,2011 05:27 am

The protesters dumped hundreds of documents out of the windows after a day of demonstrations outside the building in which crowds swinging sledge hammers and using their bare hands tore apart the embassys security wall.Israels ambassador, Yitzhak Levanon, his family and other embassy staff were waiting at Cairos airport for a military plane to evacuate them, said airport officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.Hundreds of protesters converged on the embassy throughout the afternoon and into the night, tearing down large sections of the graffiti-covered security wall outside the 21-story building housing the embassy. Egyptian security forces made no attempt for hours to intervene.Just before midnight, a group of protesters reached a room on one of the embassys lower floors at the top of the building and began dumping Hebrew-language documents from the windows, said an Egyptian security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.In Jerusalem, an Israeli official confirmed the embassy had been broken into, saying it appeared the group reached a waiting room on the lower floor. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to release the information.No one answered the phone at the embassy late Friday.Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February, calls have grown in Egypt for ending the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel, a pact that has never had the support of ordinary Egyptians. Anger increased last month after Israeli forces responding to a cross-border militant attack mistakenly killed five Egyptian police officers near the border.Several large protests have taken place outside the embassy in recent months without serious incident. Fridays demonstration, however, quickly escalated with crowds pummeling the security wall with sledge hammers and tearing away large sections of the cement and metal barrier, which was recently put up to better protect the site from protests.For the second time in less than a month, protesters were able to get to the top of the building and pull down the Israeli flag.