عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Palestinians Fly to Cyprus in Israeli Airport Pilot Program

Activists set up a Palestinian flag overlooking an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. (AFP file photo)
Activists set up a Palestinian flag overlooking an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. (AFP file photo)
TT
TT

Palestinians Fly to Cyprus in Israeli Airport Pilot Program

Activists set up a Palestinian flag overlooking an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. (AFP file photo)
Activists set up a Palestinian flag overlooking an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank. (AFP file photo)

Several dozen Palestinians flew to Cyprus on Monday from an airport in southern Israel as part of a pilot program to allow Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to fly abroad.

The move was part of a series of gestures Israel said it is making to improve living conditions of Palestinians in both the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Critics said the measures do not address the daily humiliations of the decades-long occupation or pave the road for Palestinian statehood.

Forty-three residents of the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah and Nablus took off from Ramon Airport heading to Larnaca, Cyprus, said Amir Assi, a strategic consultant who coordinated the flights, The Associated Press reported.

COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for governing civil affairs in the West Bank, confirmed that Palestinians boarded an international flight from Ramon Airport for the first time and that “staff work is still under way” to facilitate regular flights for Palestinians.

The recently opened Ramon Airport is located near Israel’s resort city of Eilat, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) south of Jerusalem. It is smaller than Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv, has fewer flights and destinations and is less busy.

Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip do not have their own airport and must apply for a hard-to-obtain airport permit to use the Ben Gurion airport. Such permits are only approved, if at all, shortly before takeoff.

Those in the West Bank wishing to fly abroad must travel to Jordan’s capital of Amman through a crowded Israeli border crossing. The crossing isn’t open 24 hours a day, forcing many travelers to pay to stay in a hotel nearby ahead of their flight. There are also travel costs and crossing fees that make the journey an added financial burden.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since the militant Hamas group seized power in 2007, and all movement in and out of the territory is heavily restricted.

The airport authority said earlier this month that there would be twice weekly flights for Palestinians from Ramon to Antalya, Turkey, later in August and that flights to Istanbul would begin in September.

Israel captured both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, and the Palestinians seek them for a future state. There have not been substantive peace talks in over a decade.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Egypt’s Prime Minister and FM Head to Washington for Trump Peace Council Meeting

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty speaks during a joint press conference with Kenyan Prime Cabinet Secretary/Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty speaks during a joint press conference with Kenyan Prime Cabinet Secretary/Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP)
TT
TT

Egypt’s Prime Minister and FM Head to Washington for Trump Peace Council Meeting

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty speaks during a joint press conference with Kenyan Prime Cabinet Secretary/Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty speaks during a joint press conference with Kenyan Prime Cabinet Secretary/Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi in Nairobi, Kenya, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP)

Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly headed to Washington on Tuesday ‌to ‌participate in ‌the inaugural ⁠meeting of a "Board of Peace" established by US President Donald ⁠Trump, the ‌cabinet ‌said.

Madbouly is ‌attending ‌on behalf of President Abdel ‌Fattah al-Sisi and is accompanied by ⁠Foreign ⁠Minister Badr Abdelatty.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar will represent Israel at the inaugural meeting, his office said on Tuesday.

Hamas, meanwhile, called on the newly-formed board to pressure Israel to halt what it described as ongoing violations of the ceasefire in Gaza.

The Board of Peace, of which Trump is the chairman, was initially designed to oversee the Gaza truce and the territory's reconstruction after the war between Hamas and Israel.

But its purpose has since morphed into resolving all sorts of international conflicts, triggering fears the US president wants to create a rival to the United Nations.

Saar will first attend a ministerial level UN Security Council meeting in New York on Wednesday, and on Thursday he "will represent Israel at the inaugural session of the board, chaired by Trump in Washington DC, where he will present Israel's position", his office said in a statement.

It was initially reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might attend the gathering, but his office said last week that he would not.

Ahead of the meeting, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told AFP that the Palestinian movement urged the board's members "to take serious action to compel the Israeli occupation to stop its violations in Gaza".

"The war of genocide against the Strip is still ongoing -- through killing, displacement, siege, and starvation -- which have not stopped until this very moment," he added.

He also called for the board to work to support the newly formed Palestinian technocratic committee meant to oversee the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza "so that relief and reconstruction efforts in Gaza can commence".

Announcing the creation of the board in January, Trump also unveiled plans to establish a "Gaza Executive Board" operating under the body.

The executive board would include Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi.

Netanyahu has strongly objected to their inclusion.

Since Trump launched his "Board of Peace" at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, at least 19 countries have signed its founding charter.

Arab World

Palestinian Child Dies After Stepping on Mine in West Bank

Israeli troops conduct a military raid in the village of Al-Yamoun, west of Jenin, West Bank, 17 February 2026. (EPA)
Israeli troops conduct a military raid in the village of Al-Yamoun, west of Jenin, West Bank, 17 February 2026. (EPA)
TT
TT

Palestinian Child Dies After Stepping on Mine in West Bank

Israeli troops conduct a military raid in the village of Al-Yamoun, west of Jenin, West Bank, 17 February 2026. (EPA)
Israeli troops conduct a military raid in the village of Al-Yamoun, west of Jenin, West Bank, 17 February 2026. (EPA)

A Palestinian child died after stepping on a mine near an Israeli military camp in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, with an Israeli defense ministry source confirming the death.

"Our crews received the body of a 13-year-old child who was killed after a mine exploded in one of the old camps in Jiftlik in the northern Jordan Valley," the Red Crescent said in a statement.

A source at COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry's agency in charge of civilian matters in the Palestinian territories, confirmed the death to AFP and identified the boy as Mohammed Abu Dalah, from the village of Jiftlik.

Israel's military had previously said in a statement that three Palestinians were injured "as a result of playing with unexploded ordnance", without specifying their ages.

It added that the area of the incident, Tirzah, is "a military camp in the area of the Jordan Valley", near Jiftlik and close to the Jordanian border.

"This area is a live-fire zone and entry into it is prohibited," the military said.

Jiftlik village council head Ahmad Ghawanmeh told AFP that three children, the oldest of whom was 16, were collecting herbs near the military base when they detonated a mine.

Jiftlik as well as the nearby Tirzah base are located in the Palestinian territory's Area C, which falls under direct Israeli control.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.

Much of the area near the border with Jordan -- which Israel signed a peace deal with in 1994 -- remains mined.

In January, Israel's defense ministry said it had begun demining the border area as part of construction works for a new barrier it says aims to stem weapons smuggling.

Arab World

Hezbollah Rejects Disarmament Plan and Government’s Four-Month Timeline

29 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Then Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem is pictured during a meeting in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
29 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Then Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem is pictured during a meeting in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
TT
TT

Hezbollah Rejects Disarmament Plan and Government’s Four-Month Timeline

29 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Then Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem is pictured during a meeting in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)
29 July 2024, Iran, Tehran: Then Hezbollah deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem is pictured during a meeting in Tehran. (Iranian Presidency/dpa)

Hezbollah rejected on Tuesday the Lebanese government's decision to grant the army at least four months to advance the second phase of a nationwide disarmament plan, saying it would not accept what it sees as a move serving Israel.

Lebanon's cabinet tasked the army in August 2025 with drawing up and beginning to implement a plan to bring all armed groups' weapons under state control, a bid aimed primarily at disarming Hezbollah after its devastating ‌war with ‌Israel in 2024.

In September 2025 the cabinet formally ‌welcomed ⁠the army's plan to ⁠disarm the Iran-backed Shiite party, although it did not set a clear timeframe and cautioned that the military's limited capabilities and ongoing Israeli strikes could hinder progress.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem said in a speech on Monday that "what the Lebanese government is doing by focusing on disarmament is a major mistake because this issue serves the goals of Israeli ⁠aggression".

Lebanon's Information Minister Paul Morcos said during a press ‌conference late on Monday after ‌a cabinet meeting that the government had taken note of the army's monthly ‌report on its arms control plan that includes restricting weapons in ‌areas north of the Litani River up to the Awali River in Sidon, and granted it four months.

"The required time frame is four months, renewable depending on available capabilities, Israeli attacks and field obstacles,” he said.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan ‌Fadlallah said, "we cannot be lenient," signaling the group's rejection of the timeline and the broader approach to ⁠the issue of ⁠its weapons.

Hezbollah has rejected the disarmament effort as a misstep while Israel continues to target Lebanon, and Shiite ministers walked out of the cabinet session in protest.

Israel has said Hezbollah's disarmament is a security priority, arguing that the group's weapons outside Lebanese state control pose a direct threat to its security.

Israeli officials say any disarmament plan must be fully and effectively implemented, especially in areas close to the border, and that continued Hezbollah military activity constitutes a violation of relevant international resolutions.

Israel has also said it will continue what it describes as action to prevent the entrenchment or arming of hostile actors in Lebanon until cross-border threats are eliminated.