Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reached a new agreement to boost economic cooperation between the two countries.
The agreement was signed during Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid’s visit to the Gulf country.
Israeli media sources described the deal as a spur to business development between the countries after they normalised relations last year.
However, Palestinian social media users slammed the agreement as it came on the same day as Israel carries out a large-scale demolition process against dozens of Palestinian homes in occupied Jerusalem’s Silwan neighborhood.
The visit came as part of Israel-UAE attempts to strengthen the normalisation deal reached between the two countries in August 2020.
Over the past few months, Israelis started flocking to the UAE amid large-scale Palestinian and Arab anger.
Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan have followed in the UAE’s footsteps and signed a normalisation deal with Israel.
Yair Lapid landed in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday in the first official visit by an Israeli minister to the Gulf state in history.
During the two-day visit, Lapid inaugurated Israel’s embassy in Abu Dhabi and consulate in Dubai.
The visit is considered the first by an Israeli minister since the two countries normalised ties in August 2020.
A step was strongly condemned by the Palestinian Authority and widely welcomed by world powers.
The controversial visit came only a few weeks after a ceasefire ending Israel’s 11-day offensive on Gaza.
253 Palestinians, including 66 children, were killed during the attacks.
