Shin Bet chief visits Egypt to improve ties with Israel

Israel’s Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar visited Egypt to hold meetings with officials in an attempt to mend fences with Cairo.

Ronen Bar met with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, who recently cancelled a scheduled visit to Israel in protest at Tel Aviv’s arrest and killing of Islamic Jihad members in Nablus despite the Cairo-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group.

Israel’s Army Radio recently revealed that there has been a crisis in relations with Egypt for the past two months. The crisis worsened further after the latest developments in Nablus.

Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1979, by virtue of which they normalised relations. Like his predecessors, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi maintained close ties and bilateral military and intelligence cooperation with the occupation state.

Tensions rose nearly two months ago when Israeli fighter jets intercepted an unarmed Egyptian drone that had crossed the Egyptian border with Israel by mistake.

Cairo also expressed its discontent after the emergence of Israeli media reports suggesting the existence of an unmarked mass grave near Jerusalem containing the remains of Egyptian soldiers who died in the 1967 War. Israel Radio added that Israel is seeking to search for the Egyptian soldiers’ burial site and return their remains to Cairo.

It noted that Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid contacted Al-Sisi in an effort to ease tension, promising to do everything necessary to find the mass grave.