Egypt to withdraw ambassador in Israel over shootings

Egypt says it is withdrawing its ambassador to Israel over the deaths of five of its policemen on the two countries' border.

The five were killed as Israeli troops pursued Palestinian militants blamed for deadly attacks in southern Israel on Thursday.

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"The Egyptian ambassador to Israel will be withdrawn until we are notified about the results of an investigation by the Israeli authorities," a statement by the Egyptian government said.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 Egyptian protesters held an overnight protest outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo, 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 Egyptian policemen died as Israel was pursuing suspected militants from the Gaza Strip.

The militants who reportedly crossed the border from the Sinai Peninsular into southern Israel - killed eight people in southern Israel on Thursday.

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.