Israel reasserted its diplomatic presence in Egypt on Monday, three months after rioters ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
Ambassador Yaakov Amitai has joined a small number of Israeli diplomatic staff still in the Egyptian capital.
His predecessor Yitzhak left after protesters in September tore down a security wall around the Israeli Embassy – then stormed and trashed its offices.
Foreign Ministry officials noted that they have not yet found a new embassy building in Cairo, meaning Amitai will temporarily operate from his local residence in the city.
According to reports Amitai landed in Cairo early Monday before being ushered to his residence by security.
Relations between Jerusalem and Cairo have become increasingly strained since the ouster of Egypt's long-term President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year.
A wave of radical sentiment has unearthed a strong anti-Israel feeling on the banks of the Nile, leading for calls from the public to annul the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace treaty.
While the interim junta that has ruled Egypt since Mubarak's government fell has sought to maintain the geopolitical status quo, Islamic parties who are sweeping the parliamentary elections taking place in the country have said they intend to "review" Egypt's treaty with Israel – potentially abrogating it.
Such a decision would likely result in the loss of billions in US aid tied to the treaty - which have turned Egypt into a regional power in the intervening decades- and renewed hostilities with Israel.
Israel ceded the Sinai to Egypt under the 1979 treaty on condition it remain demilitarized. In the absence of the treaty Israeli leaders might feel compelled to retake the Sinai as a strategic buffer with an increasingly hostile state.