Cairo has announced it is to send a new ambassador to Tel Aviv two years after then president Mohamed Morsi withdrew his envoy in protest of Israeli air raid in the Gaza Strip in 2012, local media reported.
Egyptian media said the diplomat had been chosen and will be current deputy foreign minister Hazim Khairat, adding that he is to take on the position very soon.
According to Arab48.com, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced yesterday that Egypt had informed his government that it would send a new ambassador to Israel.
Israeli media said the move reinforced Israeli-Egyptian relations.
Egypt withdrew its ambassador from Tel Aviv during the Israeli assault on Gaza in 2012, dubbed “Operation Pillar of Defence”.
Egyptian newspaper Youm7 reported that the reinstatement of the Egyptian ambassador to Tel Aviv is part of Egypt’s obligation under the Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire, which ended last summer’s 51-day Israeli offensive on Gaza.