Egypt-Israel border
Egypt-Israel borderYaniv Nadav/Flash 90

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Wednesday called on the newly elected Israeli government to take “brave decisions” towards reaching a peace deal in the region, the Xinhua news agency reported.

"The new government represents the choice of the Israeli people," Shoukry said in a statement published by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

He added that Egypt looks forward to working with the new Israeli government to push the Israeli-Palestinian Arab peace process and to establish an independent Palestinian state.

"Egypt works on exploring the efforts that will lead to the peace in the region and reaching an agreement based on the two-state solution," the statement said.

Egypt, which became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, mediated the ceasefire agreement that ended the recent round of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

There have not been any serious Israeli-PA peace talks in over a decade, though Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has in the past expressed a willingness to mediate such talks.

Sisi has in the past urged Israelis and Palestinian Arabs to seize what he said was a "real opportunity" for peace and hailed his own country's peace deal with Israel. He repeated his call for a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the PA in September of 2018.