The first flight carrying Israeli tourists to the United Arab Emirates landed in the city-state of Dubai on Sunday – the latest sign of the normalisation deal reached between the two nations.

FlyDubai flight No. FZ8194 landed at Dubai International Airport just after 5.40pm, bringing the tourists to the city after a roughly three-hour trip.

The low-cost carrier had sent one of its Boeing 737s to Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Sunday morning to pick the passengers up.

The flight flew across Saudi Arabia and then over the waters of the Persian Gulf to reach the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms also home to Abu Dhabi.

The arrival of tourists comes as Dubai in particular tries to revive its vital tourism industry amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The UAE and Israel have agreed to launch regular commercial flights between their countries soon, while other recent flights have carried business and governmental delegations.

FlyDubai plans to begin its flights to Tel Aviv later this month. The airline described Sunday’s flight as a “charter” for the incoming tourists.

It comes as Israel and the UAE, which had maintained covert contacts for years, brought their diplomatic relationship out into the open. It signed a normalisation deal with Israel alongside Bahrain at a White House ceremony in September, making them the third and fourth Arab nations to currently have peace with Israel.

But while Egypt and Jordan earlier signed peace deals, the UAE has said it anticipates having a “warm” peace with Israel.

The Emirates also hopes the deal will aid its efforts to purchase advanced F-35 fighter jets from the US.

The deals also unite three nations that remain suspicious of Iran.

But the agreements did not address the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, who view the pacts as a stab in the back from their fellow Arabs and a betrayal of their cause for a Palestinian state.

The agreements, which were seen as a foreign policy win for US president Donald Trump ahead of the November 3 election, now face the incoming administration of president-elect Joe Biden.

The first known direct commercial flight between Israel and Bahrain has landed in the island kingdom, just a week after it signed a deal alongside the United Arab Emirates to normalise relations.

Flight data showed an Israir Airlines Airbus A320 landed at Bahrain International Airport after a nearly three-hour flight from Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Hours later, Bahrain acknowledged the flight carried a delegation of Israeli officials.

“A working team from the state of Israel visited Manama today to discuss areas of co-operation between the two countries,” Bahrain said in a brief statement.

“These talks come after the signing of the Declaration of Peace.”

Bahrain did not identify the officials taking part, nor say who they spoke to while in Manama.

There was no immediate acknowledgement of the flight from the Israeli government, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday spoke by telephone to Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

Bahrain’s state-run media did not acknowledge the flight.

Officials on the island off the coast of Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The US Embassy in Manama similarly did not respond to a request for comment.

The flight was made without ceremony, in sharp contrast to the first El Al flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates at the end of August.

That plane carried US and Israeli officials, including President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as media.

In Bahrain, civil society groups have criticised the move to normalise relations with Israel, saying that recognition should come only after Palestinians obtain their own independent state.

Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet and a British naval base, has a predominantly Shi’ite population ruled by a Sunni royal family.

Arab Spring protests there in 2011 ended with authorities cracking down with the help of Saudi and Emirati forces.

Bahrain and the UAE signed normalisation agreements on September 15 with Israel at the White House, part of a US diplomatic push as Donald Trump seeks re-election.

The UAE and Israel have moved quickly to explore commercial ties after their normalisation deal.

Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa previously had been quoted as saying he believed Arab countries should drop their boycott of Israel.

It is likely Saudi Arabia, a major benefactor for his nation, gave its assent to the normalisation deal.

Wednesday’s Israir flight flew over the kingdom, which has opened its airspace to Israeli flights to both Bahrain and the UAE.

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will now allow flights “from all countries” to cross its skies to reach the United Arab Emirates.

The historic first comes just days after the kingdom let the first direct Israeli commercial passenger flight use its airspace to reach the UAE.

The statement makes no mention of the kingdom’s rival, Iran, nor Qatar, which Saudi Arabia is currently boycotting.

It is apparently a reference to the start of commercial flights from Israel to the UAE, as any direct flight between the two nations would need to use Saudi airspace to be commercially viable.

The Saudi Press Agency said the move comes in response to a “request by the UAE” for flights to and from the country.

Earlier this week, Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, flew with a high-level Israeli delegation to the UAE on the first direct commercial passenger flight between the two countries, a Star of David emblazoned on the jet’s tail.

The flight traversed Saudi airspace, signalling at least acquiescence for a breakthrough US-brokered deal by the United Arab Emirates to normalise relations with Israel.

Shortly after the Saudi statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli planes and flights from all other countries can fly directly from Israel to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

He made no mention of Saudi Arabia but a direct flight from Israel involves crossing Saudi skies.

“This will reduce the cost of flights, it will shorten the time, this will greatly develop tourism, it will develop our economy,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video statement released by his office.

“These are the fruits of real peace,” he added.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a deal to establish full diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates proves his country does not need to retreat from occupied land sought by the Palestinians to achieve peace and normalisation with Arab states.

The two countries announced on Thursday they were establishing full diplomatic relations in a US-brokered deal that required Israel to halt its contentious plan to annex occupied West Bank land sought by the Palestinians.

Mr Netanyahu has insisted the annexation plans are only on “temporary hold” at the request of the US.

The UAE, like most of the Arab world, long rejected official diplomatic ties with Israel, saying recognition should only come in return for concessions in peace talks.

Its accord with Israel breaks that long-held tenet and could usher in agreements with other Arab states, undermining a consensus that was a rare source of leverage for the Palestinians.

“According to the Palestinians and to many others in the world who agreed with them, peace can’t be reached without conceding to the Palestinians’ demands, including uprooting settlements, dividing Jerusalem and withdrawal to 1967 lines,” Mr Netanyahu said in a video statement.

“No more. This concept of ‘peace through withdrawal and weakness’ has passed from the world.”

The Palestinians want the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip for their hoped-for state and peacemaking with them since the 1990s has been based on withdrawal from those lands to make way for a Palestinian homeland.

Israel captured the territories in the 1967 Six-Day War, although it withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005.

But what has been a wall of Arab support for the Palestinians and their demands has begun to crack in recent years, in large part because of the shared enmity of Israel and other Arab states towards Iran and Iranian proxies in the region.

The Palestinians bristled at Mr Netanyahu’s remarks.

“Peace should be established on the basis of the Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abba, said.

“This is the Arab and international consensus, and anything else has no value.”

Mr Netanyahu also reiterated his interpretation of the UAE deal – that annexation is only being suspended and is still on the table, so long as it was done in coordination with Washington.

UAE officials have indicated the deal means annexation has been shelved entirely.

After President Donald Trump released his Middle East plan earlier this year, which was favourable to Israel, Mr Netanyahu said he would forge ahead with annexing parts of the West Bank.

He backed away from moving forwards with annexation last month in the face of fierce international opposition and misgivings by White House officials.

But Mr Netanyahu, who has seen his popularity plummet over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, has faced searing criticism from settler leaders and their representatives in Parliament over the annexation backtrack and he has tried to reassure them that he remains committed to the move.

Kuwait’s ruler will travel to Washington on Monday for a working visit and hold talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, the state news agency KUNA announced on Sunday.

The White House said in a statement the leaders would discuss trade, investment and security cooperation in their Sept. 5 meeting.

Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah has led mediation efforts to resolve a year-long dispute between Gulf Arab neighbours after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic, trade and transport ties with Qatar.

The four countries accuse Doha of supporting terrorism and cosying up to regional foe Iran. Doha denies those charges and says the boycott is an attempt to impinge on its sovereignty.

Trump publicly sided with the Saudis and Emiratis early on in the crisis but then began pushing for a resolution to restore Gulf unity and maintain a united front against Iran.

Reuters reported in July that the administration was quietly pushing ahead with a bid to create a new security and political alliance with six Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, in part to counter Iran’s expansion in the region, citing U.S. and Arab officials.

The administration’s hope is that the effort, tentatively known as the Middle East Strategic Alliance, might be discussed at a summit provisionally scheduled for Washington on Oct. 12-13, the sources said, though the Qatar rift could present a big obstacle.