On 15 May thousands of Egyptian youth and political activists, on the anniversary of the Nakba and the so-called Third Intifada Day, went to protest peacefully in front of the Israeli embassy, mainly by shouting out calls for Palestinians' due rights. This was not the first movement of its kind, but rather had been repeared a number of times before without any attacks on the protestors.

The police, army, and general security forces had gathered just in front of the Israeli embassy and placed metal barriers and put out a large number of armor-plated wagons and mechanisms. When the demonstrators demanded the lowering of the Israeli flag, the mechanisms and the Army and Central Security forces intervened and attacked the demonstrators, leading to injuries among the demonstrators. Army and Central Security forces and special working forces started to arrest hundreds of youths who were present in the street near the Israeli embassy, who were beaten and tortured and subjected to other inhumane or degrading practices while detained.

Among the detainees who were taken was the young Mosaab Shami (21 years old), a student in the Pharmaceutical Faculty, who said in his statement to Alkarama that he was arrested from Mourad Street near the Israeli embassy by a number of men in Army uniform who immediately started punching and kicking him on many parts of his body. He was beaten on the face by one of the Army officers after he asked him to let up, and his face was ground into the pavement, not to mention a torrent of swearing and cursing at his family and honour.

The young Mahmoud Sadati (18 years old), a student at the Faculty of Engineering, was shocked with electricity after being captured by Central Security forces, who held him by the feet and dragged him along the ground for a long way, then detained him in a building near the Israeli embassy and greeted men in Army uniforms. He also mentioned in his testimony to Alkarama that he was shocked with electricity in various parts of his body and of his feet, then thrown into a transport car in which he found more than 50 youths from among the demonstrators who stayed there nearly 12 hours without being allowed to go outside – a blatant violation of human rights. They were then moved to Harbi Prison.

A responsible source in the Egyptian Ministry of Health clarified that "more than 353 people were injured in the confrontations that took place yesterday in front of the Israeli embassy in Giza", an indication of the use of excessive force by the security forces and army against the demonstrators.

The media has revealed that hundreds of young demonstrators were arrested following the events in front of the Israeli embassy. They were imprisoned in Harbi Prison and brought before a hastily convened military court on charges of aggression against policemen and Army personnel who were protecting the Israeli embassy. They were sentenced to 6 months to a year in prison (suspended.)

Alkarama for Human Rights, for its part, expresses its strong rejection of the Egyptian authorities' attacks on unarmed protestors gathered in the square in front of the Israeli embassy for peaceful protest against the Zionist entity's violations of world human rights, in commemoration of the day of the Palestinian Nakba.

Ahmad Mofreh, researcher in Alkarama's Legal Section "cannot excuse, under any circumstances, such an unprecedented degree of use of excessive force and firing of rubber bullets and tear gas and arbitrary arrests of peaceful unarmed demonstrators – even showering them with curses, adding emotional pain to the physical pain, as the victims and eyewitnesses have testified."

Ahmed Mofreh added: "Excessive force of this kind, which has led to the injury and arrest of hundreds of demonstrators, brings us back to the black record of security practices before the revolution of 25 January, represented by security repression of any peaceful gatherings through arbitrary arrests and beatings directly affecting the physical security of peaceful demonstrators."

Alkarama directs attention to a climate where trials of those responsible for the security repression of the revolution of 25 January has seriously slowed down, undoubtedly pushing other groups of officials to use the same security methods of excessive force, and violating the most basic rights of the peaceful demonstrators, which Egypt has ratified and promised to provide justly and in accordance with the relevant international documents on human rights.

Alkarama also calls for the Egyptian government and officials to respect the right of the Egyptian people to demonstrate and gather peacefully – a right stipulated by the country's current Constitutional Declaration, which confirms in Article 16 that "citizens have the right of private assembly in peace without bearing arms without the need for prior notice. It is not permitted for security forces to attend these private meetings. Public meetings, processions and gatherings are permitted within the confines of the law."