By AMY TEIBEL | AP

Hundreds of Egyptians shout anti-Israeli slogans as they look to Israel’s embassy floor on a building in Cairo on Saturday. (AP)

CAIRO: Egypt said Saturday it would recall its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of at least three Egyptian troops killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants who had launched a deadly attack on Israel from Egyptian soil.

The decision sharply escalated tensions between the neighboring countries, whose 1979 peace treaty is being tested by the fall of Egypt’s longtime autocratic leader, Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt’s interim government accused Israel of violating that treaty and demanded an apology, saying the envoy would be withdrawn until Israel concludes its investigation into the Egyptian security forces’ deaths.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Israeli government was holding consultations on the Egyptian move.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak also said he had instructed the Israeli army to hold a joint investigation with Egypt into the incident.

The Cabinet, which was appointed by the ruling military council that took over power after Mubarak’s ouster, revised an earlier statement saying the envoy, Yasser Reda, would be summoned for consultation — something that would have signaled a lower-level spat. Israel was likely to see that as a worrisome sign that Egypt’s new leaders would be more responsive to public opinion about the Jewish state, which remains overwhelmingly unpopular because of its conflict with the Palestinians.