A policeman in Egypt killed 2 Israelis, 1 Egyptian at tourist site in Alexandria
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00:00 I want to go to our correspondent in Cairo.
00:04 What do you know about this attack?
00:05 What can you tell us?
00:06 Well, to be honest, the details are very, very scarce.
00:10 The details you mentioned that were brought out by the Ministry of Interior are basically
00:14 all we know.
00:15 It was an attack of an Egyptian policeman who shot at a Hurayli tourist at a popular
00:20 tourist site in Alexandria, at Pompeii's Pillar.
00:23 It's an old Roman site.
00:25 He killed two Israelis.
00:26 He killed one Egyptian and another one wounded.
00:28 And he has been detained.
00:30 That's most information we have.
00:33 And it's maybe not so surprising that so little information is coming out about this, because
00:36 this is a very delicate issue for Egypt.
00:40 I visit Alexandria myself regularly.
00:43 And earlier this year, I encountered a big tourist bus there, a big touring bus with
00:46 Israeli tourists.
00:48 And that touring bus was actually guarded by three police cars.
00:52 So Egypt wants to put heavy police presence around Israeli tourists to protect them.
00:57 And now it's someone from the police itself who opened fire at Israelis.
01:03 That is very, very painful.
01:05 And you see that Egypt has good relations with Israel, good political relations.
01:13 But among its population, a lot of people are sympathizing with Palestinians.
01:17 And it doesn't mean that Egyptians would attack, would want to attack every Israeli they see
01:22 in Egypt.
01:23 You have had radical Islamist groups active in Egypt, targeting Christians, targeting
01:28 the government.
01:29 And you would think that they could be the threat of Israeli tourists.
01:32 But now it comes from the state security apparatus itself.
01:37 That's very painful.
01:38 And it's also not the first time a police officer goes rogue in Egypt.
01:42 In June this year, a policeman in Sinai at the border of Israel managed to cross the
01:48 border of Israel on its own, kill three Israeli soldiers before he got shot himself.
01:53 And back then you also saw that there were very little details about who this person
01:57 was, why he did this, how it could happen.
02:01 Very little was released, all to not put any extra tension on this relation between Israel
02:06 and Egypt.
02:07 Both Israel and Egypt want to maintain these relations good.
02:11 This kind of incident puts tension on it.
02:15 Can you tell us more about how Egypt is reacting to the events of this weekend?
02:20 What's the position from Cairo?
02:22 Well, it's basically every time violence erupts in Israel and Palestine, Egypt tries to maneuver
02:28 itself in a mediating position.
02:30 And they have good relations with Israel.
02:31 They have channels open with Hamas.
02:34 So they are able to talk with both sides.
02:36 And in past circles of violence, they have managed to broker a ceasefire.
02:40 And now this time they also tried to do a comparable thing.
02:43 And they have, the foreign minister of Egypt has conducted a lot of phone calls with world
02:47 leaders.
02:48 There has been already contact on back channels.
02:52 So they try to put themselves in a mediating role again.
02:56 Obviously, when an Egyptian policeman fires at Israeli tourists, that makes that role
03:01 of Egypt as a stable, neutral mediator in between a bit more precarious.
03:08 Thank you to you, Edouard Cousin, our correspondent there in Cairo.