The primary business passenger flight to Israel by a provider from the United Arab Emirates landed close to Tel Aviv on Monday, additional cementing a normalisation deal between the 2 international locations.
Etihad Airways Flight No 9607 landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion worldwide airport simply after 7am. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner departed for Abu Dhabi later Monday with an Israeli journey and tourism delegation on board, in accordance with an Etihad assertion.
Etihad stated it plans common passenger flights between the international locations sooner or later and was launching a devoted Hebrew web site.
Etihad beforehand despatched to Tel Aviv an unmarked cargo airplane flying support to help the Palestinians in combating the coronavirus. In August, a Star of David-adorned El Al airplane flew from Israel to Abu Dhabi, carrying a high-ranking American and Israeli delegation within the first-ever direct business passenger flight between the 2 international locations.
Israel and the UAE introduced in August that they had agreed to normalise ties, setting off a flurry of enterprise, banking and intergovernmental agreements, together with an finish to a longstanding boycott by the UAE in opposition to Israel.
Close by Gulf monarchy Bahrain additionally signed an settlement on Sept 15 on the White Home alongside the UAE to normalise relations with Israel. The UAE and Bahrain are the third and fourth Arab states to ascertain ties with Israel. Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively.
An Israeli delegation flew to Bahrain on Sunday to formalise that deal.
The so-called “Abraham Accords” introduced long-clandestine ties between Israel and several other Gulf states — solid in recent times over a shared concern over regional rival Iran — into the open.
The US-brokered normalisation agreements have outraged the Palestinians, whose leaders have referred to as the offers a betrayal of a longtime Arab stance that recognition of Israel would come solely after Palestinians get hold of an unbiased state of their very own.
