Updated 3pm

EGYPT PUT ITS police force on a state of alert after a night of violence during which angry protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, tearing down a cement barrier around the building and dumping documents out of the windows.

The rampage further worsened already deteriorating ties between Israel and post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt. The Israeli ambassador and his family had rushed to the airport and left the country. Reuters reports that one Israeli official has remained at the embassy in Cairo in order to maintain it.

The Guardian reports that at least three people were killed and more than 1,000 people were injured during the clashes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the storming if the embassy, saying it inflicted a “severe injury to the fabric of peace” between Egypt and Israel.

Reuters reports that police pushed the protesters back after dawn, while according to the BBC live shots have been heard and a police vehicle was set on fire.

The unrest began following prayers yesterday when protesters gathered in Tahrir Square.

Since the fall of Mubarak — who worked closely with the Israelis — in February, ties have steadily worsened between the two countries. Anger increased last month after Israeli forces responding to a cross-border militant attack mistakenly killed five Egyptian police officers near the border.

Egypt nearly withdrew its ambassador from Israel, and protesters demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. Calls have grown in Egypt for ending the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel, a pact that has never had the support of ordinary Egyptians.

Several large protests have taken place outside the embassy in recent months without serious incident.

Yesterday, Egyptians held their first significant demonstrations in a month against the country’s military rulers, with thousands gathering in Cairo and other cities. Alongside those gatherings, a crowd massed outside the Israeli Embassy’s building.

It quickly escalated with crowds pummeling the graffiti-covered security wall with sledgehammers and tearing away large sections of the cement and metal barrier, which was recently put up by Egyptian authorities to better protect the site from protests.

For the second time in less than a month, protesters were able to get to the top of the building and pull down the Israeli flag. They replaced it with the Egyptian flag.

Egypt’s state TV said the interior ministry on Saturday ordered all officers back on duty and cancelled holidays.

In Washington, President Barack Obama assured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was acting “at all levels” to resolve the situation.

Obama expressed “great concern” about the situation, the White House said.

The demonstrations against Israel coincide with increasing discontent among Egyptians with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country when Mubarak was forced out on 11 February after nearly three decades in power.

Several thousand massed in Tahrir Square yesterday, as well as in the cities of Alexandria, Suez and elsewhere. Demonstrators in Cairo also converged on the state TV building, a central courthouse and the Interior Ministry, a hated symbol of abuses by police and security forces under Mubarak. Protesters covered one of the ministry’s gates with graffiti and tore off parts of the large ministry seal.

Seven months after the popular uprising that drove Mubarak from power, Egyptians are still pressing for a list of changes, including more transparent trials of former regime figures accused of corruption and a clear timetable for parliamentary elections.

- Additional reporting by AP