BICOM

As many as fifty people were killed yesterday in Egypt as violence broke out between supporters of ousted premier Mohammed Morsi and Egyptian security forces.

Most of the deaths were reported in Cairo, where supporters of Morsi and those who back Egypt’s military rulers had gathered at separate events, ostensibly to mark the fortieth anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. However, the gatherings were a trigger for yet more violence between supporters and opponents of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood. Reuters reports that at least five people were also killed by live fire in the town of Delga, while Egypt’s interior ministry reported the arrest of 420 anti-army demonstrators.

The clashes in Cairo occurred when thousands of Morsi supporters attempted to march to an official military-sanctioned war commemoration in Tahrir Square. The Guardian reports that at around 3pm, Morsi supporters were met with tear gas, rubber bullets and then live rounds as they approached Tahrir Square. Several hundred people have been killed in Egypt following the forced removal of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from power by the country’s military in July. A state of emergency was declared in August.

Meanwhile, the fortieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War was cause for reflection in Israel yesterday. The war started with a massive simultaneous surprise attack by Egyptian and Syrian forces on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

The outbreak of the war took Israel by surprise and although it ultimately ended in an Israeli military victory, more than 2,500 Israeli soldiers were killed. A symposium yesterday at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies featured Zvi Zamir and Eli Zeira, the former respective heads of Mossad and IDF Military Intelligence at the time. The pair shared sharply differing narratives, at times blaming each other over the intelligence failures, exposing the recriminations which remain in Israel regarding the war.