TEL AVIV (Dispatches) – The first direct flight between Tel Aviv in the occupied territories and Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh took off on Sunday, the occupying regime’s airline El-Al said.
Direct flights, which are seen as a security threat to the region, have long been in operation between the occupied territories and Cairo, since Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a so-called peace accord with the Zionist regime.
The two have lately bolstered their ties which has drawn angry reactions from Palestinian and the Muslim world.
Zionist prime minister Naftali Bennett has twice visited Egypt after coming to power in June, and met President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in September.
In early October, a plane branded with the logo of Egypt’s national carrier Egyptair landed in the occupied territories for the first time, a flight described as “historic” by the Israel Airport Authority.
Prior to that, Egyptian flights to the occupied territories had been operated by an Egyptair subsidiary, Air Sinai, set up exclusively for the route and without displaying the Egyptian flag on the exterior of its planes.
Many in Egypt oppose ties with the Zionist regime.
The Egyptian branch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which opposes the Zionist regime’s occupation of Palestinian territories, has called for a boycott of two festivals organized by the Zionist regime due to take place in Sinai over the coming days.
Until 2020, Egypt and Jordan were the only Arab governments to have normalized relations with the regime.
That year, they were joined by Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, which all now operate direct flights to the occupied territories.