Lapid lands in Cairo ahead of talks with Sissi, Egyptian FM

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid landed in Cairo Thursday morning to meet with Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry.

The meetings are the latest in a series of high-level contacts between Israel and its southern neighbor.

Lapid was welcomed at the airport by Egypt’s Deputy Foreign Minister Nabil Habashi.

Lapid will present Sissi with stolen Egyptian artifacts that were smuggled to Israel and are now held by the Israel Antiquities Authority. Eli Escozido, director of the IAA, joined Lapid for the visit.

“From a political-security perspective the strengthening of Israel-Egypt relations is a very important interest for the State of Israel,” Lapid’s office said in a statement. “The minister’s visit is a direct continuation of the Israeli government’s foreign policy to use common interests as leverage for regional stability.”

The visit is expected to cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the tentative Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, as well as the issue of the Israeli citizens s and the remains of two Israeli soldiers being held in the Strip.

Lapid previously met with Shoukry in July, when the two men were in Brussels for an EU conference.

Lapid’s visit to Egypt follows Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh with Sissi in September, the first such summit between Israeli and Egyptian leaders in more than a decade.

Last month, the new head of the Shin Bet security service and Bennett’s national security adviser reportedly traveled to Egypt for talks on Gaza.

Israel and the Hamas terror group have been holding indirect negotiations, moderated by Egypt, on stabilizing the fragile ceasefire since the 11-day battle between the two sides in May.

Israel has vowed not to allow a full reconstruction of Gaza without a prisoner swap between the two sides.

Two Israeli civilians are currently being held in Gaza. Avraham Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed entered the Strip of their own accord, and their families say they suffer from mental illness. Hamas is also holding the bodies of Oren Shaul and Hadar Goldin, two IDF soldiers who were killed in the Strip during the 2014 Gaza war.

Israel has, over the years, worked to secure the release of the civilians and the soldiers’ bodies, often using the Egyptian military, which maintains ties with both Jerusalem and Hamas, as an intermediary.

Hamas has sought, in exchange, the release of Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails — members of Hamas and of other terror groups.