The leaders of Egypt and Israel have met as part of the first official trip to Egypt by an Israeli Prime Minister in over a decade, and rising tensions in the Gaza Strip at the top of their agenda.
Gaza is sandwiched between Israel and Egypt, and both countries have enforced a border blockade of the territory to varying degrees since 2007 when the Islamic militant group Hamas took control there.
The meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday signalled a warming in a relationship that had security-focused but somewhat cool under Bennett’s predecessor, Israeli hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu.
El-Sissi and Bennett met in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, according to an official statement from the Egyptian presidency. Egypt’s state television showed both leaders sitting side by side in front of both of national flags, with the Israeli army’s chief of staff and Egypt’s foreign minister and the head of its intelligence service also in attendance.
It was the first official visit by an Israeli premier since 2010, when then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hosted a summit with Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
