Israel Embassy Protest
Israel Embassy ProtestFlash 90

Far short of a "million man protest," hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo on Friday demanding that the ambassador be expelled from the country. It is unknown if more will arrive after Friday afternoon Muslim prayers.

The protests came amid tensions following the deaths of three Egyptian security officers apparently shot inadvertantly by IDF troops pursuing the terrorists who carried out last weeks lethal bus-atack near Eilat that left 8 Israelis dead.

Egyptian security forces were deployed in the area around the embassy amid fears the potentially large demonstrations could turn violent.

In Tehran, hundreds of protesters gathered in the streets to mark "Jerusalem Day" in an anti-Israel rally while President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad declared the recognition of a 'Palestinian state' by the United Nations in September would be the first step to the Jewish state's destruction.

On Sunday, hundreds of Egyptians demonstrated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, vowing to continue a two-day rally until the ambassador’s expulsion.

Protests took a dramatic turn Sunday afternoon when a demonstrator scaled the 21- story building housing the embassy to take down the Israeli flag.

Ahmed al-Shahat – a 23-year old building contractor from the eastern Nile Delta dubbed the “Egyptian Spiderman” – instantly become a national icon.

But the turnout as of 4pm (GMT+2) on Friday was far short of what organizers had hoped for - perhaps because the Muslim Brotherhood announced its Freedom and Justice Party would not be participating in the demonstrations.

The Brotherhood is the largest and most organized political faction in Egypt, if not the Mideast region at large.

Meanwhile, Egyptian parliamentarians are pushing Cairo's caretaker junta to demand Israel surrender the port city of Eilat – despite Egypt's formally ceding Eilat to Israel in the 1979 Camp David Accords.