CAIRO, Aug 17: A former Egyptian consul in Israel told on Thursday how he had narrowly escaped an attempt to kill him in a Cairo street, with the would-be assassin being his younger brother.

Ambassador Hassan Issa told Egyptian papers that his brother Ali had previously threatened him with death several times for his ‘apostasy’ in taking the post of consul general in Eilat, southern Israel.

At the end of last month, while the Israel military was carrying out its deadly offensive against Lebanon and Hezbollah, his brother tried to run him down in an avenue in Mohandessin residential district.

The ambassador said he had managed to avoid the vehicle but that his head had hit the windscreen and he lost consciousness.

Another brother who was with him took him to a nearby hospital.

Passersby caught the younger brother and took him to the police.

“My brother has been released. There will be a trial although I do not know when,” said the diplomat.

He blamed a preacher, Omar Abdul Qafi, whose sister Ali married.

Abdul Qafi, who was known for his inflammatory preaching in the 1990s and forced to leave Egypt, now lives in Dubai.

“I want to turn the page, forget all this which is very painful,” said Issa.—AFP