Gulf Air
Gulf AiriStock

Gulf Air, Bahrain’s national airline, officially announced on Thursday that it would be launching flights to Israel.

“We are excited to announce that we will be flying to Tel Aviv starting 30 September 2021 with two weekly flights,” the airline said on its Twitter account.

Bahrain, along with the United Arab Emirates, normalized relations with Israel a year ago as part of the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

Last week, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met in the Knesset with Bahrain's first Ambassador to Israel, Khaled Yousef al-Jalahmah, who presented him with a copy of his diplomatic credentials.

Lapid congratulated the Ambassador on his arrival, and for the expected opening of the Bahraini embassy in Israel, and together they discussed the strengthening of ties between the two countries and peoples.

Al-Jalahma, who arrived in Israel earlier in the week, tweeted the news of his arrival in Israel in three languages.

The English-language tweet read, "I am honored to announce that I will be arriving in Tel Aviv today to begin my post as Bahrain’s first Ambassador to Israel."

The parallel tweets were written in Hebrew and Arabic.

Also last week, the Supreme Appointments Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs named Eitan Na’eh as Israel’s first ambassador to Bahrain.