Shin Bet Chief Meets Egyptian Spymaster Amid Row Over Israeli Raid

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Ronen Bar traveled to Egypt on Sunday amid an apparent row with Cairo over an Israeli counter-terrorism raid in Judea and Samaria that came less than 48 hours after a ceasefire was forged to end the latest conflict with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, local media reported.

Bar reportedly met with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, after Cairo expressed anger over an Israeli raid on Aug. 9 in Nablus that killed wanted Palestinian terrorist Ibrahim Nabulsi during an hours-long gun battle.

According to the reports, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid had assured Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that Jerusalem would curtail its military activities in Judea and Samaria in the wake of the Egyptian-mediated truce that ended “Operation Breaking Dawn” on Aug. 7.

The three-day conflict, in which Gaza Strip-based terrorists fired some 1,100 projectiles at the Jewish state, was partially precipitated by the arrest on Aug. 1 during an Israeli mission in Jenin of Bassam al-Sa’adi, who leads PIJ in Judea and Samaria and is suspected of building terror cells in the area.