The US deputy secretary of state, William Burns was to meet with leaders of Muslim Brotherhood’s party in Cairo on Wednesday. The party has achieved a sweeping victory in the first parliamentary votes.

Egypt’s Islamists are poised to dominate the next lower house of parliament, with two parties winning 65% of seats, closely followed by al-Nour party, which represents the ultra-conservative brand of Islam. Rival leftist parties have fared badly in the elections.

The US is reaching out to Freedom and Justice Party FJP, which secured 35 % of the vote, as a new political entity. However, US has indicated concerns about the group’s attitude toward Egypt’s Coptic minority, women and the peace treaty with Israel.

Burns is also expected to discuss Egypt’s major crackdown on local and international NGOs as part of a probe into allegations of illegal funding from abroad.

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Egypt’s official news service MENA says that authorities have detained an Israeli citizen on charges of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad. The suspect named Ilan Chaim Grabel was arrested from his hotel room in central Cairo for “spying on Egypt with the aim of damaging its economic and political interests”, said MENA on Sunday. Egypt’s state TV claimed that Grabel had arrived in the country shortly after the beginning of the Jan 25 uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak’s regime. Israeli Foreign Ministry said that it didn’t know about the arrest.

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Context
Israeli aircrafts have carried out three air assaults on the Gaza strip, just hours after an explosion hit a busy bus station in central Jerusalem, leaving at least one person dead and 30 wounded in what authorities claim was the deadliest attack in years. Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, said that the air raids targeted smuggling tunnels along Gaza’s border with Egypt, in addition to one of its training facilities in Central Gaza. Another strike targeted a power transformer leading to blackouts in some areas. An Israeli military spokesperson said that the air assaults were in response to rockets being fired from Gaza.

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