Egypt appoints first ambassador to Israel since 2012

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi appointed on Sunday a new ambassador to Israel for the first time since 2012, official MENA news agency reported.Sisi appointed diplomat Hazem Khairat as new ambassador to Tel Aviv to replace his predecessor Atef Salem, whom Egypt recalled in late 2012 over an Israeli deadly offensive on the Palestinian Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Salem is appointed as new ambassador to Cuba. The appointments came within a massive diplomatic reshuffle approved by Sisi on Sunday, including Yasser Reda as new ambassador to Washington, Foreign Ministry's spokesman Badr Abdel-Atty as new ambassador to Berlin, diplomat Alaa Youssef Hassan as general consul in London. The reshuffle also included Nasser Hamdy as new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Wael Gad to the United Arab Emirates, Yasser Atef to Kuwait, Abu Bakr Hefni to Ethiopia, Hatem Seif-al-Nasr Vatican, Mahi Abdel-Latif to Norway. Although both Egypt and Israel see Hamas as a threat, Egypt has been a key mediator in reaching a truce between Israel and Hamas in August 2014. The truce brokered by Sisi came after a 50-day Israeli war on the enclave that killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, while attacks by Gaza militants killed 73 on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers. An Egyptian court has separately listed Hamas and its armed wing al-Qassam Brigades as terrorist groups, yet another court annulled the ruling on the part of Hamas earlier in June, a verdict that was welcomed by the Palestinian influential movement.