Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold in Egypt. After being closed for four years, the Israeli Embassy in Cairo has reopened. Photo: Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Israel reopened its embassy in Cairo and resumed normal operations on Wednesday, exactly four years after closing its doors, following a violent attack by an Egyptian mob, Israeli news site nrg reported.

A delegation headed by Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold arrived in the Egyptian capital to mark the occasion. Attendees at the ceremonious event included Egypt’s Deputy Chief of Protocol, the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Israel’s Ambassador to Egypt Haim Koren and embassy staffers.

After the opening ceremony, during which the Israeli flag was raised over the embassy building, a new plaque with the Coat of Arms of the state of Israel was unveiled.

The event concluded with the playing of both Egypt’s national anthem and Israel’s — “Hatikva.”

Israeli diplomats were forced to flee Cairo on September 9, 2011, after hundreds of Egyptian demonstrators broke through the embassy’s security barrier, tore down and burned its Israeli flag, and raised the Egyptian flag in its stead.

The mob then attempted to break into the building, where the holed-up staff was rescued at the last minute by Egyptian security personnel.

At the ceremony on Wednesday, Gold noted the instrumental role of Egypt’s president in facilitating the reopening of the embassy, and stressed the importance of the Egypt-Israel relationship. “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, we have succeeded in quashing the threats [to the safety of Israeli diplomats], and we are working together towards stability and prosperity in the Middle East. Egypt will always be the largest and most important country in our region, and it is no wonder that in the Arab world it is common to call Egypt ‘Umm Al-Dunya,’ the mother of the world.”