CAIRO, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Egypt denounced on Wednesday the recent assault of Israeli police on monks of a monastery in Jerusalem whose ownership is claimed by Egypt's Orthodox Church.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli troops broke into Deir el-Sultan Monastery in Jerusalem, which is currently run by Ethiopians, to disband protesting monks who opposed Israeli attempts to do reparation works inside the monastery.
The Israeli forces also detained one of the Egyptian monks, who was later released after the interference of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
"Egypt denounces the assault of the Israeli police on a number of priests and deacons of the Deir el-Sultan Monastery in Jerusalem affiliated to Egypt's Orthodox Church and the detention of one of them," said a statement of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez said that the ministry is closely following up the development of the incident on the ground and is in constant contact with the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv and the church leading clerics.
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch of St. Mark Diocese, head of Egypt's Orthodox Church, said that the Egyptian leadership is concerned about Deir el-Sultan assault as a national issue, not just a Coptic one.
The ownership of the 1,000-year-old monastery has been disputed since 1820, according to the Egyptian pope, who stressed that the Israeli constitutional court ruled the Egyptian Orthodox Church's ownership of the monastery.
He noted that the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the Egyptian ambassador to Tel Aviv have been holding several meetings to discuss the means of returning the monastery to the Egyptian church's ownership.
"The monastery has been occupied since 1970 when the Israeli authorities used the political situation then and allowed a group of Ethiopian monks to be present in the monastery," said the Egyptian top Coptic figure.
Anba Antonious, Metropolitan of Jerusalem and the Near East Metropolitan, said on Wednesday that the monastery, where Ethiopians have lived for decades, had been owned by the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church since the 7th century.
The Israeli aggression against Deir el-Sultan monks sparked criticism from other Egyptian officials and bodies, including Al-Azhar, the most prestigious learning institution for Sunni Muslims in Egypt and the whole world.
"Al-Azhar asserts its full solidarity with the Coptic church in facing the aggressions of the Israeli occupation and its invalid procedures," said Al-Azhar's statement, expressing full support for "the historical right" of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Church in restoring Deir el-Sultan.
The Israeli move was also slammed by the Egyptian parliament, Egypt's Catholic Church, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, the Islamic Christian Committee to Defend Jerusalem and Holy Sites, the Palestine Liberation Organization and others.
