Protesters have held a mass rally at Cairo's Tahrir Square calling for reforms, after the ruling military council said it would respond harshly to any violence by activists. By evening, demonstrators had partially destroyed a wall recently built outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo to protect the building.
The protesters also ripped down the Israeli flag during the unrest, and the Egyptian ministry of health has said 88 people were injured in clashes around the embassy. Friday's gathering the Egyptian capital was supposed to branch out into a march to the nearby cabinet offices, to press the military rulers to keep their promises of reform after the February revolution that ended Hosni Mubarak's rule.
All through the morning, protesters gathered under a scorching sun and filled a section of the public square to listen to the weekly Muslim prayer sermon. "It would be shame on the Egyptian people if they forget their revolution," the preacher said