Report: 1st direct flight between Israel, UAE takes off.

The first “historic” commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi carrying officials from Israel and the US, including President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to discuss the recently agreed normalisation of Israel-UAE ties under American mediation took off from the Ben-Gurion airport on Monday morning.

The development is being also seen as a major breakthrough because the Israeli national carrier, El Al, is likely to fly over the Saudi airspace which is being interpreted by analysts as acceptance of Israel by the Gulf countries in general, and a probable normalisation of ties with some of the other “friendly countries” in that region.