Israeli security delegation in Egypt to calm tensions

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On Sunday, Israel Army Radio said a high-ranking Israeli security delegation secretly visited Egypt two weeks ago with the aim of calming disputes between the two countries. The radio said that one issue that recently affected Egyptian-Israeli relations is the intensification of the Israeli army’s arrest campaigns and raids on the West Bank.

The radio added that among the steps Israel has taken to ease tension with Egypt is the release of Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawda, who has been on a hunger strike for 160 days. Haaretz had said that the Egyptian role in reaching cease-fire agreements between the Israelis and the Palestinians has become commonplace in recent years, but that the recent mediation did not go well between the Egyptians and the Israelis. On August 7, an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire was announced between Israel and Gaza after Israel carried out air strikes on Islamic Jihad sites. The latter responded by firing rockets. As a result, 43 Palestinians were killed, including 15 children, while 34 Israelis were injured.

According to Haaretz, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi asked Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid to stop the operations of the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank to reduce the tension that began after the arrest of a prominent member of the Islamic Jihad movement, Bassam al-Saadi.

The Israeli newspaper pointed out that while Sisi was talking to Lapid, the Israeli army carried out an operation in which a leader in the Fatah movement, Ibrahim Nabulsi, was killed, which angered the Egyptian side. It is expected that the tension between the two countries would eventually dissipate due to their common strategic interests.