Israel "won't tolerate" Gaza rocket fire against its citizens Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told Egyptian Intelligence head Abbas Kamel when the two men met Thursday in Tel Aviv.
Israel has yet to respond to Monday's rocket fire against its southern city of Sderot which was intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. There have been no further attacks since.
It came just as Israel has eased restrictions at its commercial crossing at Kerem Shalom and its Erez crossing.
Egypt is working on brokering a ceasefire between the IDF and Hamas and has held indirect talks with both parties since the end of the 11-day Gaza war in May known as Operation Guardian of the Walls.
Kamel's meeting with Lapid followed a series of talks the intelligence chief had with top-level Palestinian officials in the West Bank and Israeli officials.
FM @yairlapid: “I met with Egyptian Minister of Intelligence and Director of the General Intelligence Directorate, Abbas Kamel. We discussed the relations between our countries and the need to expand our relations on economic - civilian issues. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/V7h7g8oxxO
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) August 19, 2021
In Ramallah Kamel met Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian counterpart, Majed Faraj. Hussein al-Sheikh who heads the PA General Authority of Civil Affairs, and Minister of Information Nabil Abu Rudaineh also attended the meeting.
Kamel also met in Israel with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
his Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi set to take place in Cairo in the coming weeks.
A public Israeli prime ministerial visit to Cairo is a rare occurrence and the last one took place in 2010 between former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Egyptian President Housni Mubarak.
Netanyahu had failed to secure a Cairo meeting with Sisi during the last election campaign earlier this year, although he reportedly held a secret meeting with him in Cairo in 2018. They two men also met that year publicly in New York.
Bennett will head to Cairo only after he has held his first meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington next week.
A cold peace has existed between Israel and Egypt since 1979, but Cairo has been active on Israel's behalf with Hamas as a third party broker in the aftermath of both the 2014and May 2021 Gaza wars.
Lapid and Kamel spoke of the need to improve trade and expand Israeli-Egyptian ties through joint economic and civic projects in the areas of health, technology, agriculture and energy.
They also spoke of the role the relationship plays in ensuring regional stability.
The meeting comes as Hamas has threatened renewed violence unless there is a resumption of the Qatari cash payments for both needy families in Gaza and Hamas employees, which was halted after the May war.
It has also warned that on Saturday it will renew its violent protests along Israel's southern border.
Bennett does not want to send untraceable cash into Gaza. Israel found an alternative mechanism to send the funds to needy families but has yet to find an acceptable solution for the Hamas salaries.