Hundreds of Egyptians have torn down a wall surrounding the Israeli embassy and stormed its complex, with conflicting reports coming in about Egyptian security personnel fleeing the scene.
Egyptian activists storm the Israeli embassy in Cairo and burn the Israeli flag.
Ynet is reporting:
Hundreds of Egyptian activists...broke into the building and managed to reach the floor on which the embassy is located. However, they have not managed to break in through the fortified doors.
Some of the protesters then entered into the embassy premises and removed the Israeli flag from the building for the second time this month. Eyewitnesses reported that the protesters threw the flag on the street, prompting loud cheers from the crowd gathered around the embassy.
Here is breaking video of the event, which shows the very beginning of Egyptians tearing down the barrier wall:
This unrest around the Israeli embassy follows growing tensions in Egypt over a number of issues, principally the killing of Egyptian soldiers by the IDF along the Egyptian-Israeli border, a situation which is still being investigated by both sides.
Also in the backdrop is the growing diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey – Ankara has expelled Israeli diplomats, frozen military ties and pledged to accompany aid ships to Gaza with Turkish warships.
In recent days, Turkey and Egypt were reported to be working on a military pact with the Israel diplomatic difficulties in the background, a move that both countries assured had nothing to do with Israel, but which commentators both in the U.S. and Israel saw as a troubling escalation in the diplomatic crisis.
My estimation is that, diplomatically, things are going to be resolved between Israel, Egypt and Turkey. However, with September and the Palestinian UN statehood bid looming, these events are not exactly positive developments.
UPDATE: Israel's ambassador and family were rushed to a military plane and have fled Egypt while crowds were shown dumping hundreds of documents from the building's windows.
President Obama is concerned about the situation, and is in touch with Israeli officials about the events.
Haaretz is reporting:
Israel's ambassador, Yitzhak Levanon, his family and other embassy staff rushed to Cairo airport and left on a military plane for Israel, said airport officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barak Obama spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the situation at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.
The President's office said in a statement that Obama expressed great concern about the situation at the Embassy, and the security of the Israelis serving there.