In a major diplomatic blow for Israel, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday recalled his ambassador to the Jewish state in response to Israel's bombardment of Palestinian security targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday night.
Egypt's Middle East news agency (MENA) quoted Foreign Minister Amr Moussa as saying that Mr Mubarak had decided "to recall Ambassador [Mohammed] Bassiouny to Cairo immediately after the Israeli escalation of aggression against the Palestinians".
Mr Moussa later said the ambassador had been ordered home for an unlimited period of time. Israel said it had no plans to recall its ambassador from Cairo.
Israel's firing of dozens of missiles at the headquarters of the various security branches of the Palestinian authority, came in retaliation for a huge roadside bomb, detonated near a settler schoolbus in Gaza on Monday morning, killing two adults and injuring nine others, including five children.
After a lull in the fighting over the weekend, following an order by the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, forbidding gunmen from shooting at Israeli targets from areas under his control, violent clashes again fanned out again across Gaza and the West Bank yesterday. Six Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli troops - three of them overnight on Monday - and a Jewish settler was killed by a Palestinian gunman in Gaza.
Israel's political leaders, who were caught off guard by the Egyptian move yesterday, expressed fears that Egypt's role as a mediator in the Middle East peace process would be undermined. "Egypt has played an important role in the peace process,["] said the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, "but recalling their ambassador does not contribute to the continuation of this role." But Mr Moussa said yesterday that Egypt had not abandoned its diplomatic function. "We stand firm behind the peace process," he said.
Egypt, which was the first Arab state to make peace with Israel, 21 years ago, has also served as the main moderating force on Mr Arafat and the Arab world during the eight weeks of conflict. Mr Mubarak exerted pressure on Mr Arafat to attend the Sharem El-Sheikh ceasefire conference, and he has blocked attempts by more militant Arab states to impose far-reaching sanctions on Israel.
Egypt has once before recalled its ambassador, after the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacre during Israel's invasion of Lebanon. He returned four years later. Jordan has refrained from sending its new ambassador to Israel for several weeks as a result of the hostilities. Palestinian leaders welcomed Egypt's decision. "This is a critical message to the Arab nations, to the United States and to the international community that Israel has to pay the price of its aggression," said the Palestinian cabinet minister, Mr Hassan Asfur.
But Israeli commentators suggested that the decision to recall its ambassador did not mean Egypt was on the brink of severing diplomatic ties with Israel. In fact, some observers suggested that Mr Mubarak, who has been under pressure from Arab states to adopt a more militant stance toward Israel, imposed the diplomatic sanction to boost his credentials as the leader of the Arab world so as to increase his ability to pressure Mr Arafat to halt the violence and return to the negotiating table.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army reported that three armed Palestinians were killed in clashes with its troops overnight, one while he was trying to place a bomb at a major intersection in the Gaza Strip. During the day yesterday two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, while a Palestinian policeman was killed in a gun battle near the Kfar Darom settlement in Gaza.