Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will reportedly return dozens of stolen Egyptian artifacts during his upcoming visit to Cairo on Thursday.
The artifacts — seized in two separate police raids back in 2013 — include a stone tablet inscribed with hieroglyphic runes, a stone sarcophagus, ancient writings on papyrus paper, as well as a myriad of ceremonial statues.
The first group of artifacts was seized from an Israeli antique trader, who supposedly purchased the artifacts in Oxford, before attempting to smuggle them into the country illegally.
The second group was taken months after from a certified trader in Jerusalem, following a tip from Egyptian authorities, who claimed the artifacts were exported from Egypt illegally.
The artifacts will be returned to Egypt at the request of Egyptian authorities, and as a goodwill gesture on Israel’s part, meant to further develop the growing relationship between the two neighboring countries.
Lapid's planned talks in Cairo are 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 Israelis and the remains of Israeli soldiers being held in the Strip.
He is also expected to meet with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry
It is currently unknown if Lapid will meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
This is the second time Israel performed such a goodwill gesture towards Cairo, who in 2016 received from two rare ancient Egyptian sarcophagus lids, plundered during the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.