
Protesters chant holding Palestinian flags during Monday's anti-Israel demonstration in Talaat Harb Square, downtown Cairo (Photo: Mai Shaheen)
Dozens of protesters gathered in Downtown Cairo on Monday evening to protest the latest Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Over the past three days, the Israeli army has attacked the territory, killing six Palestinians, allegedly including two militants and two minors, claiming the strikes were in response to an anti-tank missile fired by militants at an Israeli jeep earlier this week.
Protesters demonstrated in Talaat Harb Square, close to Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the Egyptian 25 January uprising.
"No to the vicious aggression on Gaza" said a banner held by members of the leftist Egyptian Popular Current, one of the protest's organisers.
Another protest held a sign bearing a quote by former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel-Nasser: "Our struggle against the Zionists is a conflict of existence, not of borders."
Many protesters held Palestinian flags at the protest.
Among the participating groups at the protest are the National Front for Justice and Freedom and the Revolutionary Socialists.
Earlier this week, ten political parties and movements issued a statement calling for the demonstration, and also demanding that President Mohamed Morsi immediately expel the Israeli ambassador to Egypt.
The statement argued that the attacks in Gaza over the weekend cannot be understood separately from current events in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. The statement accuses Israeli intelligence of involvement in the current security problems in Sinai, adding that the Egyptian government is also to blame for its "bad management" of the situation.
"We reject the situation whereby after a revolution, the government can continue to hide its deals with Israel and instead continue to blame the Palestinians for deteriorating security in Sinai," the statement read, further blaming the lack of Egyptian opposition to events in Palestine on the new regime and its "lies", and demanding that the Camp David peace treaty with Israel is made public "for citizens to know its catastrophic effect" on Egypt.
The statement was signed by a number of political organisations, including the Egyptian Popular Current, the National Front for Justice and Democracy, the Revolutionary Socialists, the Popular Committees for the Protection of the Revolution, the Alliance of Revolutionary Forces, the National Assembly for Change, the Free Egyptian movement, the Free Egyptians Party, the Free Front for Peaceful Change, and the Kefaya movement
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