Israeli delegation secretly visited Egypt to calm tensions: Report

A high-ranking Israeli delegation has secretly visited Egypt in order to calm tensions that have recently affected ties between Cairo and Tel Aviv, a report says.

On Sunday, the London-based al-Araby al-Jadeed cited a radio station operated by the Israeli army as saying Avi Gil, the military secretary of prime minister Yair Lapid, heading a delegation that included senior military officials, visited Egypt a week ago.

The report said the visit was aimed to find “solutions” to disputes that erupted between the two sides.

The radio station said the intensified Israeli arrest campaigns and raids in the occupied West Bank that constituted a breach of a pledge the regime made following Egyptian mediation efforts aimed to end the latest Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip were one of the issues that heightened tensions between the two sides.

Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on August 5. The raid lasted for three consecutive days, killing dozens of people, including 17 children and top members of Islamic Jihad. Hundreds more were also injured during the Israeli aggression. In response to the Israeli onslaught on Gaza, Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets at the Israeli-occupied territories, prompting the regime in Tel Aviv to accept an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

The Israeli radio station also said the Israeli decision to release Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh who was on hunger strike for more than five months came as part of efforts aimed to ease tensions with Cairo, saying that the decision was made in coordination with Cairo.

Palestinian prisoner ends hunger strike after 'release deal'

Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh ends his hunger strike after reaching "release deal" with Israeli regime.

According to the report, Israel has also intensified its efforts to locate a mass grave for dozens of Egyptian soldiers who were killed in the vicinity of al-Quds during the 1967 war in order to ease tensions with Egypt.

That comes as the recent Israeli media reports that revealed that at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burnt alive and buried in an unmarked mass grave in the area of Latrun, West of al-Quds, raised the ire of the Egyptian public.

Moreover, al-Araby al-Jadeed cited Israel’s TV channel Kan as saying that the downing of an Egyptian drone over the region of Naqab (Negev) in June “embarrassed” the Egyptian side.

Back then, an Israeli source said the aircraft, operated by the Egyptian military to monitor Daesh activity in the northern Sinai desert, accidentally entered Israeli airspace.

An Egyptian official familiar with the Egyptian mediation efforts between the Israeli regime and the Palestinian factions told al-Araby al-Jadeed on Sunday that latest visit to Egypt made by the Israeli delegation followed a similar one by Ronen Bar, the head of Israel's internal spy agency Shin Bet.

According to the report, Bar visited Cairo on August 21 to contain tensions.

The Egyptian official said the visits were aimed to “contain the Egyptian ire” over the Israeli regime’s failure to live up to their commitments under the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement in Gaza that came into force on August 7.

The Egyptian official said that the release of Khalil Awawdeh and Bassam al-Sa’adi, a leader of the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, which had been set as a condition for the truce, was discussed during the Israeli delegation’s visit.

The official said it was agreed, during the visit, to release Awawdeh “as a first stage” due to his serious health condition.

He added that al- Sa’adi would be freed after the upcoming Knesset election scheduled for November 1.

Awawdeh ended hunger strike on Wednesday after the Israeli regime agreed to release him in October.

The Egyptian source also said Cairo “received compensation” that he described as “appropriate” in return for the drone that was downed by Israel on June 22.

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