Egypt recalls ambassador, demands Israel probe killings

Mourners carry the coffin of one of the security officers killed along the Egypt-Israel border   Egypt on Saturday recalled its ambassador to Israel over the killing of its three security members near their shared southern border. "Egypt has decided to withdraw its ambassador to Israel until there is an official apology," it said.
Egypt's military chief of staff, Sami Enan, headed to the Sinai on Friday to probe the deaths of the policemen killed a day earlier.
Meanwhile three people were injured, two seriously, when rockets fired by militants in Gaza slammed into the coastal town of Ashdod in southern Israel early on Saturday, police said.
"One rocket hit a house, causing damage but no casualties," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.
"The second fell on open ground, among sand dunes, where it wounded three people, Palestinians staying in Israel illegally, injuring two seriously and one moderatately," she said.
The rocket attacks came after a string of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday killed seven Palestinians, a day after eight Israelis were killed by suspected Islamist militants near the Egyptian border.
Cairo said it held Israel "responsible for the incident", demanding an investigation and an apology.
The Israeli authorities have promised to investigate the deaths.
"The Egyptian ambassador to Israel will be withdrawn until we are notified about the results of an investigation by the Israeli authorities," a statement by the Egyptian government said.
It also demanded "an apology from its (Israeli) leadership over the sad and hasty remarks about Egypt".
A number of Egyptians protested outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo overnight, demanding that the Israeli ambassador be expelled from the country.
Earlier, Egypt filed a formal complaint to Israel over the deaths of its policemen, three of whom were killed by gunfire on Thursday and two died of their wounds on Friday.
The five policemen died as Israel was pursuing suspected militants, who reportedly crossed the border from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel on Thursday and killed eight people.
Since then, Israeli has carried out a series of air strikes on targets in Gaza, in which at least 14 Palestinians were killed.
The Hamas-run ministry of health in Gaza accused Israel of committing "war crimes".
On Friday, Palestinian militants fired more than 20 rockets into Israel.