Cairo - Egypt appointed its first ambassador to Israel
since 2012 on Sunday, signalling improving ties between states that both see
the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, as
a threat.
Former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim
Brotherhood recalled Cairo's ambassador to Israel in November 2012 over an
Israeli attack that left Hamas's military commander dead and kickstarted weeks
of violence.
"President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued a republican
decree appointing new diplomats abroad which included ... Ambassador Hazem
Khairat ... as Egyptian ambassador to Tel Aviv," state news agency MENA
reported on Sunday.
Former army chief Sisi was elected president last year
after he ousted Morsi in 2013 following mass protests against the latter's
rule.
He has since presided over a systematic crackdown over
Islamists.
Egyptian courts have declared Hamas, its armed wing
Qassam Brigades and the Brotherhood as terrorist organisations, although the
ruling against Hamas was reversed in June.
"We have been informed by the authorities in Egypt
that it is dispatching an ambassador to Israel," Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday at a joint news conference with French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Jerusalem.
Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
