UAE sent COVID-19 aid to Israel months ago: reports

By Hamdi Yildiz

JERUSALEM (AA) –The United Arab Emirates sent 100,000 coronavirus test kits to Israel earlier this year, Israeli media reported late Thursday.

Following an announcement earlier in the day by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the two countries will cooperate in the fight against COVID-19, the Yediot Aharonot daily reported that a UAE plane carrying the kits landed in Tel Aviv on March 26.

It also said that planes from Abu Dhabi would directly land at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv.

The UAE does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel, despite numerous reports of unspecified contacts between the two countries.

In October 2018, however, UAE authorities gave permission to Israeli athletes to participate in the International Judo Federation Grand Slam tournament in Abu Dhabi.

In August 2019, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the UAE had reached a deal worth almost $3 billion with Israel to supply advanced intelligence capabilities to the Gulf state, including two spy planes.

In June, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Twitter that "continued Israeli talk of annexing Palestinian lands must stop.”

*Writing by Sena Guler