Egyptian Coptics attacked, dozens slightly injured

Hundreds of Coptics marching in Cairo Thursday were attacked by unknown assailants.

Thirty-two people were injured including two police officers, according to Dr. Adel Al Dawi, a ministry of health spokesman. Except for one badly injured girl who remained hospitalized late Thursday, those injured were treated for minor bruises and cuts.

The marchers were heading to Cairo's Tahrir Square to commemorate the deaths of pro-Coptic protesters killed in clashes in the Egyptian capital last month.

Coptic Christians, an ancient sect, make up about 9% of Egypt's largely Muslim population, according to the U.S. State Department. Problems between Egypt's Muslim majority and its Coptic Christian minority have been on the rise in recent months, with a number of violent clashes reported between the two groups.

Thursday's march was organized by the Free Copts Movements and the Blood of Martyrs movement, two of many new groups formed after clashes that took place on October 9 in the Cair neighborhood of Maspero leaving 26 dead and 300 injured.

"We were marching peacefully with candles to commemorate the 26 martyrs of Maspero on the 40-day anniversary of the Maspero attacks, when several youth clashed," said Sherif Doss, the head of the Egyptian Coptic Association.

"Some residents started throwing rocks and glass bottles from the rooftops of buildings at the crowds, which left many injured," Doss added.

"Hundreds of police conscripts assigned by the ministry of interior to protect the march started firing tear gas canisters to stop the clashes between the unidentified men," Sameh Mina a Coptic protester, told CNN.

"The Copts defended themselves and threw rocks back at the attackers until the police intervened," Mina added.

It is an Egyptian tradition to commemorate the dead on the 40th day after death.

Thursday's clashes came a day before a "million-man" protest scheduled for Friday in Tahrir Square against the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

Israel approves prisoners swaping with Egypt

Israel's security cabinet Tuesday approved a prisoner exchange with Egypt that will result in freedom for an Israeli-American man accused of spying.

Ilan Grapel has been held in Egypt since June on suspicion of espionage and incitement to burn government buildings. He should be back in Israel by Thursday, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said.

The 25 Egyptian prisoners to be freed include three minors. They are not considered security prisoners, the prime minister's office said.

The exchange comes a week after an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ultimately free about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners resulted in the release of Israeli soldier held by Hamas for nearly five years.

Grapel, 28, is a former Israeli paratrooper. At the time of his arrest, he was studying law in the United States at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, a school official said.

Egyptian officials said Israel sent him to Egypt to recruit informants in the chaos that followed the January 25 revolution that led to the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as leader, but Israeli officials have denied that he was a spy.

His mother told CNN that Grapel had traveled to Cairo for volunteer work.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the government saw "no basis for any legal action against him."

Egypt to Free Jailed U.S.-Israeli Citizen Accused of Spying

A dual U.S.-Israeli citizen imprisoned in Egypt on spy suspicions since June will be released soon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement Monday.

The statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel will release 25 Egyptian prisoners in exchange.

Ilan Grapel was arrested in Cairo on June 12 and has been held without charge since. Egypt's state TV confirmed that a deal was made and said the swap would be carried out on Thursday.

Grapel, who is 27, was suspected by Egyptian officials of spying for Israel during the height of Egypt's uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. Israel and his relatives in the U.S. denied Grapel was a spy, saying he worked for a Cairo legal aid project.

The Israeli government will convene a special Security Cabinet meeting Tuesday to approve the deal, the statement said. The list of prisoners included in the deal will be published so that Israelis would be able to appeal. The swap can take place 48 hours after the prisoners' names are made public.

"In the framework of Israel and Egyptian efforts and with the help of the United States, Egypt has agreed to release Ilan Grapel. Israel has agreed to release 25 Egyptian prisoners," the statement said

The statement said there are no "security prisoners" on the list, Israeli shorthand for militants. It is assumed that the Egyptians to be freed are mostly smugglers working the porous border between the two countries, sneaking into Israel with contraband and people seeking asylum or work.

Last week Egypt was instrumental in mediating a deal that won freedom for an Israeli soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, held for more than five years by the militant Hamas rulers of Gaza. Under that deal, Israel freed 455 Palestinian prisoners and is set to free hundreds more in two months. Some were convicted in deadly attacks against Israelis, including involvement with suicide bombings.

Schalit was captured in a 2006 cross-border raid in which Palestinian militants killed two other soldiers.,

Israeli officials said Grapel's release is not connected to the Schalit deal. They were speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Grapel moved to Israel, where his grandparents live, as a young man and did his compulsory military service during the 2006 war between the Israeli military and Hezbollah, where he was wounded. Israeli news websites have published what they identified as wartime pictures of Grapel lying in his hospital bed.

Grapel later returned to the U.S. for law school.

His father, Daniel Grapel, spoke briefly to Israel's Channel 10 TV from his home in New York Monday evening. "I haven't been officially notified, but I do know that things are happening between the U.S, Egyptian and Israeli governments," he said.

Grapel's connections to Israel, including his past military service, are easy to find on the Internet, adding to doubts that he was a spy.

He appears to have traveled to Egypt under his real name and made no secret of his Israeli links, including his past military service.

Israeli and Egyptian newspapers and websites often run pictures of Grapel in his army uniform, taken from his Facebook page. Pictures of him with protesters in Cairo's Tahrir square, the epicenter of the uprising that toppled Mubarak, also lifted from Grapel's Facebook page are frequently displayed.

Grapel graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in international studies and was planning to return to Emory for his third and final year of law studies.

Since Mubarak's ouster, Egypt's military rulers have often warned against what they call "foreign" attempts to destabilize the country. Egypt, like other Arab states, has a long history of blaming internal problems on Israel.