JERUSALEM, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's newly-appointed ambassador to Israel arrived on Sunday, local media reported.
Atef Sayed Al-Ahl is no stranger to Israel, as he served in the past at the Egyptian consulate in the southern Red Sea resort city of Eilat.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the news to Xinhua, but refused to officially comment until Al-Ahl is sworn-in by President Shimon Peres on October 17.
Al-Ahl replaces outgoing ambassador Yasser Rida, who concluded his four-year term.
Sources in the Egyptian embassy in Israel told the Walla news site that Al-Ahl arrived in Israel Sunday morning and is expected to start and attend his official duties soon.
The sources added that Al-Ahl's appointment as Rida's replacement has nothing to do with the change in governments in Egypt, and was planned in advance.
This is only one appointment out of a group of Cairo's ambassadors who traveled to new posts, Saudi Arabia, France and Switzerland, among them.
The relationship between Israel and Egypt, who signed a peace treaty in 1979 ending nearly three decades of battles, have had their ups and downs.
For the past 15 years, under the reign of former president Hosni Mubarak, high-level security, diplomatic and economic cooperation between the two countries intensified.
However, personal relations tourism between the neighboring nations languished, due to a "cold peace" which saw professional unions and other agencies impose a series of sanctions against anyone visiting the Jewish state.
Additionally, the outbreak of the so-called Arab Spring in Cairo also brought out visceral resentment of Israel by many Egyptian residents, including a ransacking of the Israeli embassy by an enraged crowd.
Extremists sabotaged a natural gas pipe supplying gas to Israel some 14 times, and, with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood into power, Israeli officials feared disintegrating diplomatic ties, due to the groups entrenched opposition to Israel's existence.
However, when Muslim extremists carried out an attack on the Egypt-Israel border a month ago killing 17 Egyptian policemen, both countries' security forces coordinated in fighting the mutual threat in the Sinai Peninsula.
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