CAIRO — Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Yahia al-Gamal on Sunday accused the United States and Israel of fomenting religious tensions to weaken his country.

“The United States and Israel are behind the religious sedition in Egypt” as “they realize this is the only way to break up the country,” the MENA news agency reported. “Israel is trying to do this because Egypt is the most important power in the region,” he said.

At least three people were hurt Saturday during clashes between Muslims and Christians in a village in the Sohag governorate over the reported building of a church.

Egypt has been gripped by insecurity and sectarian strife since a revolt that toppled president Hosni Mubarak on February 11.

Coptic Christians, who account for less than 10 percent of Egypt’s 80-million people, complain of discrimination and have been the targets of sectarian attacks. Fierce clashes broke out on May 7 between Christians and Muslims in northwest Cairo’s working-class district of Imbaba where 12 people were killed, scores injured and a church set ablaze, according to court figures.The National Council for Human Rights had put the death toll at 15.

Two weeks ago, Egypt’s state security prosecution began questioning an Israeli man suspected of spying for the Mossad intelligence agency. Ilan Grapel was detained from a Cairo hotel and ordered to be held for 15 days pending investigation.

Grapel, who according to state media is a “Mossad officer,” is accused of sowing sectarian strife and chaos in Egypt after a popular uprising forced president Hosni Mubarak to step down on February 11.

Authorities said on Sunday that the Israeli man had been “posing as a foreign correspondent,” and that his movements and phone calls had been monitored before his arrest.

Several pictures of Grapel were released showing him in Israeli army uniform posing with other soldiers, and shaking hands with worshippers at a mosque in Cairo.

Another picture shows Grapel standing in Tahrir Square — the symbolic heart of protests that brought down Mubarak — wearing sunglasses and holding a large sign that read: “Oh stupid Obama, it is a pride revolution not a food revolution.”

Another front-page photo on the state-owned daily Al-Ahram and shown repeatedly on state TV shows Grapel holding a microphone in a mosque, apparently “preaching.”

Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli military radio that Grapel is not a spy.