JERUSALEM – Egypt’s foreign minister, on a visit to Israel in pursuit of a new Mideast cease-fire, was attacked and injured by Muslim extremists at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem yesterday.
Ahmed Maher was struck, pelted with shoes and called a “traitor” when he tried to pray at the mosque, one of the world’s holiest Islamic shrines.
Witnesses said the protesters, several dozen in number, were members of a small extremist group called “Islamic Liberation Movement.” They charged that Egypt was helping Israel oppress the Palestinians, and one shouted, “You are collaborating with the killers of Muslims.”
Maher, 68, was seen grimacing in pain and clutching his chest as his bodyguards rushed him from the esplanade atop Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, site of the mosque.
Maher, the highest-ranking Egyptian to visit Israel in three years, was winding up the latest effort by Cairo to engineer a truce among Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.
Egypt recently hosted leaders of the groups to see if they would agree to halt attacks on Israelis if Israel stopped targeting terrorists. Last week, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman visited Washington to ask the United States to encourage Israeli support of the agreement.
The next step came yesterday, when Maher met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.
As he wound up his visit, Maher tried to pray at Al Aqsa, but was spotted by the extremists, who showered him with abuse and began throwing their shoes at him.
Maher was accompanied only by his own bodyguards to the holy site, which includes the Dome of the Rock, where Muslims believe the prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
Israeli security, which accompanied him to he entrance to the esplanade, allows Palestinian religious groups to control security at the site.
After being beaten by the crowd, Maher was rushed by his guards from the site and treated at an Israeli hospital.
Late yesterday, he flew home to Cairo while Israel arrested seven people for the attacks.
Meanwhile, two Israeli army officers were killed late yesterday in a clash with a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip.
With Post Wire Services