Thousands of Egyptians gathered on Wednesday in Cairo's symbolic Tahrir square to protest in support of the Abbasseya sit-in and against the ruling military council.

Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has called for a million people to take part in the 'Final Friday' protest. A Muslim Brotherhood spokesperson told Al-Jazeera reporter Rawyah rageh that their main call was for a Tahrir protest, however key figures and MPs will also march to Abbasseya. Demonstrators will march from six main locations around Cairo to the sit-in outside of the Ministry of Defence, local media report.

Both political and pro-democracy groups are expected to attend the protests. All demand the military council to respect a July deadline to step down. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has been in power in Egypt since the toppling of former president Hosni Mubarak.

"I’m telling the military council… enough bloodshed, enough fabricated crisis, enough unleashing of thugs on the public, enough destruction… we want them to transfer power to an independent transitional authority tomorrow,” Akrami Darwish, a protester, told Al-Jazeera on Friday.

Eleven people were killed and more than 160 wounded in clashes near the defence ministry on Wednesday after armed men assaulted demonstrators protesting against the Elections Commission's decision to disqualify Hazem Abu Ismail from the presidential elections.

A group of unidentified armed men attacked several hundreds of protesters who had been staging a sit-in for more than week near the Ministry of Defense building in Abbasseya to protest the dismissal of the Hazem Abu Ismail from the Presidential campaign. Last week the Elections Commission's disqualified the Salafist candidate from running for presidency saying that since his mother became American, he no longer met the requirement of two Egyptian parents to become president.

SCAF said on Wednesday they were looking into handing over power if a presidential candidate wins in the first round. The Egyptian elections will take place on 23 and 24 May 2012.