Despite no scheduled commercial service or even diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, an Etihad A330-200 landed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to deliver coronavirus aid to Palestinians.
The aircraft, painted all white, bore the registration A6-EYP. A banner hung from the aircraft read:
“UAE AID: for Palestine to fight Coronavirus (COVID-19).”
Etihad confirmed the flight to the Associated Press:
“Etihad Airways operated a dedicated humanitarian cargo flight from Abu Dhabi to Tel Aviv on 19 May to provide medical supplies to the Palestinians.”
UAE’s state-run WAM news agency also confirmed the flight, stressing the humanitarian aid of the mission “to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic and its impact in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, expressed hope that passengers flights would soon follow.
For the first time, an @etihad cargo plane just landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport! Hopefully soon, we will see passenger flights, too. Having visited, I know the UAE is a fascinating place, and look to continue improving relations between our countries. pic.twitter.com/cfBEfTlE7y
— Ambassador Danny Danon | דני דנון (@dannydanon) May 19, 2020
Neither the West Bank nor Gaza Strip has its own airport, meaning all foreign aid delivered via air must flow through Israel. The delivery included 16 tonnes of personal protective equipment and 10 ventilators.
The flight avoided Jordanian and Saudi Arabian airspace, traveling via Syria and Iraq instead:
CONCLUSION
Although only speculation, rumors abound that Israel and the UAE have been secretly working on a rapprochement deal in order to better battle Iran, deemed a common enemy of the two nations. An unmarked plane in the middle of the night might not be much, but represents a glimmer of hope of warming relations between Israelis and Arabs in the regions.
Interestingly, all historic photos of A6-EYP online bear the Etihad livery. It appears the aircraft, much like the Air Sinai flights between Cairo and Tel Aviv, was painted white just for this mission. The aircraft pictured above is the same aircraft used for the mission.
image: RHL Images / Wikimedia Commons
Pretty historic. But no way that plane overflew Syria. That straight grey line just looks like missing data. Based upon the trajectory of the green lines, looks the aircraft would have crossed from Iraq to Turkey, and then turned south along the Mediterranean coast (in international and not Lebanese airspace).
What’s Interesting is why the flight didn’t route through Iraq and then into Jordan and on to TLV. In non-COVID times, RJ flies AMM-TLV and that border is open.
I thought it was off-topic to speculate, but you would certainly think that EY would have overblown KSA and Jordan, two allies. Indeed, Jordan even has diplomatic relations with Israel and RJ offers AMM-TLV service.
Also doesn’t Air India overfly KSA to get to TLV? Seems like if the Indians can do it, KSA should allow its closest allies the Emirates to do it.
Hey Danny boy, will Palestinians be allowed on those commercial flights?
Given that Israel demolished a Palestinian coronavirus testing center in East Jerusalem, this is the least they can do.
@Aaron, the PA cannot just set up shop in East Jerusalem, and Israel was right in protecting its sovereignty.
The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Israel have been having stealth diplomatic relations of sort for years, and they had been increasingly cooperating in ways to go after Iranian interests. Qatar and Oman have also been having varying degrees of diplomatic relations with Israel. Netanyahu even had a visit to Oman while its then Sultan was on his last hurrah before cancer killed him.
The Trump-Saudi-Emirate-Netanyahu alliance has made more messes than fixes.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are having a little fight of sorts with each other. In Yemen and a few other countries, the Saudis now back militant parties opposed to some UAE-backed militant parties.
Why would they avoid Jordanian and Saudi airspace?