JERUSALEM: When Israel struck an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to open diplomatic ties in 2020, it brought an electrifying sense of achievement to a country long ostracized in the Middle East.
Officials insisted that Israel’s new ties with the UAE, and soon after with Bahrain, would go beyond governments and become society-wide pacts, stoking mass tourism and friendly exchanges between people long at odds.
But over two years since the breakthrough accords, the expected flood of Gulf Arab tourists to Israel has been little more than a trickle. Although more than half a million Israelis have flocked to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and skyscraper-studded Dubai, just 1,600 Emirati citizens have visited Israel since it lifted coronavirus travel restrictions last year, the Israeli Tourism Ministry told The Associated Press.
The ministry does not know how many Bahrainis have visited Israel because, it said, “the numbers are too small.”
“It’s still a very weird and sensitive situation,” said Mursi Hija, head of the forum for Arabic-speaking tour guides in Israel. “The Emiratis feel like they’ve done something wrong in coming here.”
The lack of Emirati and Bahraini tourists reflects Israel’s long-standing image problem in the Arab world and reveals the limits of the Abraham Accords, experts say.
Even as bilateral trade between Israel and the UAE has exploded from $11.2 million in 2019 to $1.2 billion last year, the popularity of the agreements in the UAE and Bahrain has plummeted since the deals were signed, according to a survey by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, an American think tank.
In the UAE, support fell to 25 percent from 47 percent in the last two years. In Bahrain, just 20 percent of the population supports the deal, down from 45 percent in 2020. In that time, Israel and Gaza militants fought a devastating war and violence in the occupied West Bank surged to its highest levels in years.
Israeli officials say Gulf Arab tourism to Israel is a missing piece that would move the agreements beyond security and diplomatic ties. Tourist visits from Egypt and Jordan, the first two countries to reach peace with Israel, also are virtually nonexistent.
“We need to encourage (Emiratis) to come for the first time. It’s an important mission,” Amir Hayek, Israeli ambassador to the UAE, told the AP. “We need to promote tourism so people will know each other and understand each other.”
Israeli tourism officials flew to the UAE last month in a marketing push to spread the word that Israel is a safe and attractive destination. The ministry said it’s now pitching Tel Aviv — Israel’s commercial and entertainment hub — as a big draw for Emiratis.
Tour agents say that so far, betting on Jerusalem has backfired. The turmoil of the contested city has turned off Emiratis and Bahrainis, some of whom have faced backlash from Palestinians who see normalization as a betrayal of their cause. The Palestinian struggle for independence from Israel enjoys broad support across the Arab world.
“There’s still a lot of hesitation coming from the Arab world,” said Dan Feferman, director of Sharaka, a group that promotes people-to-people exchanges between Israel and the Arab world. “They expect (Israel) to be a conflict zone, they expect to be discriminated against.” After leading two trips of Bahrainis and Emiratis to Israel, Sharaka struggled to find more Gulf Arab citizens interested in visiting, he said.
When a group of Emirati and Bahraini social media influencers in 2020 visited the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam, they were spat on and pelted with shoes in Jerusalem’s Old City, said Hija, their tour guide.
When another group of Emirati officials visited the flashpoint site accompanied by Israeli police, they drew the ire of the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, who issued a religious edict against Emiratis visiting the mosque under Israeli supervision.
Most Emiratis and Bahrainis who have visited Israel say they forgo their national dress and headscarves in order not to attract attention.
The Islamic Waqf, which administers the mosque, declined to answer questions about the number of Emirati and Bahraini visitors and their treatment at the compound.
Palestinian rage against Emiratis is not confined to the sacred esplanade. Emirati citizens visiting and studying in Israel say they face frequent death threats and online attacks.
“Not everyone can handle the pressure,” said Sumaiiah Almehiri, a 31-year-old Emirati from Dubai studying to be a nurse at the University of Haifa. “I didn’t give into the threats, but fear is preventing a lot of Emiratis from going.”
The fear of anti-Arab racism in Israel can also drive Gulf Arabs away. Israeli police mistakenly arrested two Emirati tourists in Tel Aviv last summer while hunting for a criminal who carried out a drive-by shooting. Some Emiratis have complained on social media about drawing unwanted scrutiny from security officials at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport.
“If you bring them here and don’t treat them in a sensitive way, they’ll never come back and tell all their friends to stay away,” Hija said.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned for a sixth term as prime minister last week, has pledged to strengthen agreements with Bahrain, Morocco, the UAE and Sudan. Formal ties with Sudan remain elusive in the wake of a military coup and in the absence of a parliament to ratify its US-brokered normalization deal with Israel.
As a chief architect of the accords, Netanyahu also hopes to expand the circle of countries and reach a similar deal with Saudi Arabia.
Yet experts fear his new government — the most ultranationalist and religiously conservative in Israel’s history — could further deter Gulf Arab tourists and even jeopardize the agreements. His government has vowed to expand West Bank settlements and pledged to annex the entire territory, a step that was put on hold as a condition of the initial agreement with the UAE.
“We have a reason to be worried about any deterioration in relations,” said Moran Zaga, an expert in Gulf Arab states at the University of Haifa in Israel.
So far, Gulf Arab governments have offered no reason for concern.
The Emirati ambassador was photographed warmly embracing Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of the coalition’s most radical members, at a national day celebration last month. And over the weekend, the UAE’s leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, called Netanyahu to congratulate him and invite him to visit.
It’s a different story among those who are not in the officialdom.
“I hope that Netanyahu and those with him will not set foot on the land of the Emirates,” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati political scientist, wrote on Twitter. “I think it is appropriate to freeze the Abraham Accords temporarily.”
Where are the Gulf Arab tourists? Israel’s hopes fall short
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Where are the Gulf Arab tourists? Israel’s hopes fall short
- Over two years since the breakthrough accords, the expected flood of Gulf Arab tourists to Israel has been little more than a trickle
Lebanese president holds talks with Emirati delegation in Beirut
- Nawaf Salam in Dubai says reform and sovereignty require arms exclusivity
BEIRUT: A delegation from the UAE arrived in Beirut on Tuesday to review the needs and priorities of the Lebanese state, following the results of the Lebanese-Emirati summit that took place at the end of April in Abu Dhabi.
President Joseph Aoun, who met with the delegation, praised the “interest of the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, in supporting Lebanon.”
The delegation was led by Abdulla Nasser Lootah, deputy minister of cabinet affairs for competitiveness and knowledge exchange.
During the meeting, Aoun said, according to his media office: “The current phase necessitates the expansion of cooperation and the deepening of exchange and integration in education, governance, and public sector management, extending to private sector initiatives and various investments, particularly in knowledge economies, digitization, and advanced technology, where the expertise of our brothers in the United Arab Emirates is significant in these areas.”
Lootah outlined the delegation’s mission to “define partnership frameworks and facilitate data exchange,” emphasizing that “the UAE will stand with Lebanon in realizing the aspirations articulated by President Aoun during his discussions with our leadership. We are committed to delivering comprehensive support that strengthens bilateral cooperation, guided by extensive facilitation measures and leadership’s directives.”
An extensive technical session between Lebanese and Emirati officials addressed key modernization priorities.
Presidential sources indicated the talks concentrated on “collaborative mechanisms for streamlining administrative processes, advancing digital transformation, strengthening legal frameworks, and improving public sector efficiency through bilateral knowledge transfer and technical assistance programs.”
Concurrently, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam addressed the Dubai Media Summit, declaring Lebanon’s emergence “from the debris of multiple crises, determined to reclaim its identity, voice, and statehood after years of debilitating sectarian divisions, conflicts, and external interference.”
Salam outlined his administration’s core principle: “Our governmental approach links reform with sovereignty, necessitating weapons monopolization under state authority. Lebanon must escape the arms duality that created decision-making duality and undermined our national project.
“Our Lebanese vision represents practical policy, not idealistic thinking,” Salam said. “We envision a constitutional state governed by institutions rather than sectarian allocations and patronage networks — a sovereign entity free from external control, a decision-making state rather than a battleground for regional conflicts.”
The prime minister concluded with Lebanon's strategic positioning: “We seek a Lebanon controlling its destiny in both peace and war, firmly anchored in Arab identity while maintaining global openness, serving as an East-West communication bridge.”
Salam believes that “now that Lebanon has returned to the Arab fold, it longs to the active return of its Arab brothers, based on partnership and complementarity.”
He thanked the UAE and its president for “their supportive decisions and for allowing the brotherly Emirati people to visit Lebanon, their second country, again.”
He pointed out that “about 190,000 Lebanese live and work with utmost dedication and sincerity in the UAE, their second country, where they enjoy safety, security and quality of life.”
The Lebanese prime minister mentioned “the ongoing Israeli occupation of our territory,” and the “daily Israeli violations of our sovereignty, while we work on fully implementing decision 1701, and commit to the cessation of hostilities.”
Salam emphasized that “Beirut was and still is a beacon for expression, a hub of freedoms, and a loud Arab voice in the face of darkness and closed-mindedness. Lebanon, this small country in its geography, deep in its wounds, and rich in its cultural and human heritage, is determined to reclaim its place at the heart of the Arab world and on the map of the future despite all the storms,” he said.
Salam also mentioned the challenges facing the media these days, when “media is no longer a true reflection, but a tool that shapes the public opinion, as well as peace and strife.”
Those challenges, he said, required a new discourse.
“Today, we stand at a historic crossroads in the region; a delicate regional moment that calls for a new media discourse. One that counters efforts at marginalization and fragmentation and rekindles hope.
“We seek a modern, dynamic and diverse Arab media that shapes the future and does not dwell upon the past. One that opens windows rather than shuts them. That safeguards freedom rather than exploits it. The discourse, when truthful, can serve as a bridge toward more humane and cohesive societies.”
Women in Sudan’s Darfur at ‘near-constant risk’ of sexual violence: MSF
- The reported attacks in Darfur have been "heinous and cruel, often involving multiple perpetrators," according to MSF emergency coordinator Claire San Filippo
- "Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere," said San Filippo
PORT SUDAN: Sexual violence is a "near-constant risk" for women and girls in Sudan's western region of Darfur, Doctors without Borders (MSF) warned on Wednesday, calling for urgent action to protect civilians and provide support to survivors.
Since war began in April 2023 between Sudan's regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the reported attacks in Darfur have been "heinous and cruel, often involving multiple perpetrators," according to MSF emergency coordinator Claire San Filippo.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and left the country's already fragile infrastructure in ruins.
The RSF has been accused since the start of the war of systematic sexual violence across the country.
"Women and girls do not feel safe anywhere," said San Filippo, after MSF teams from Darfur and neighbouring Chad gathered harrowing accounts of victims.
"They are attacked in their own homes, when fleeing violence, getting food, collecting firewood, working in the fields. They tell us they feel trapped," she added.
Between January 2024 and March 2025, MSF said it had treated 659 survivors of violence in South Darfur, 94 percent of them women and girls.
More than half were assaulted by armed actors, and nearly a third were minors, with some victims as young as five.
In Tawila, a small town about 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the west from North Darfur's besieged capital of El-Fasher, 48 survivors of sexual violence were treated at the local hospital between January and early May.
Most arrived after fleeing an RSF attack on the Zamzam displacement camp that killed at least 200 civilians and displaced over 400,000.
In eastern Chad, which hosts over 800,000 Sudanese refugees, MSF treated 44 survivors since January 2025 -- almost half of them children.
A 17-year-old girl recounted being gang-raped by RSF fighters, saying: "I wanted to lose my memory after that."
According to Ruth Kauffman, MSF emergency medical manager, "access to services for survivors of sexual violence is lacking and, like most humanitarian and healthcare services in Sudan, must urgently be scaled up".
"People -- mostly women and girls -- who suffer sexual violence urgently need medical care, including psychological support and protection services," she added.
Sudan war shatters infrastructure, costly rebuild needed
- The Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been battling since April 2023
- Tens of thousands of people have been killed or injured and about 13 million were uprooted
KHARTOUM: Destroyed bridges, blackouts, empty water stations and looted hospitals across Sudan bear witness to the devastating impact on infrastructure from two years of war.
Authorities estimate hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of reconstruction would be needed. Yet there is little chance of that in the short-term given continued fighting and drone attacks on power stations, dams and fuel depots.
Not to mention a world becoming more averse to foreign aid where the biggest donor, the US, has slashed assistance.
The Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been battling since April 2023, with tens of thousands of people killed or injured and about 13 million uprooted in what aid groups call the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Residents of the capital Khartoum have to endure weeks-long power outages, unclean water and overcrowded hospitals. Their airport is burnt out with shells of planes on the runway.
Most of the main buildings in downtown Khartoum are charred and once-wealthy neighborhoods are ghost towns with destroyed cars and unexploded shells dotting the streets.
“Khartoum is not habitable. The war has destroyed our life and our country and we feel homeless even though the army is back in control,” said Tariq Ahmed, 56.
He returned briefly to his looted home in the capital before leaving it again, after the army recently pushed the RSF out of Khartoum.
One consequence of the infrastructure breakdown can be seen in a rapid cholera outbreak that has claimed 172 deaths out of 2,729 cases over the past week alone mainly in Khartoum.
Other parts of central and western Sudan, including the Darfur region, are similarly ravaged by fighting, while the extensive damage in Khartoum, once the center of service provision, reverberates across the country.
Sudanese authorities estimate reconstruction needs at $300 billion for Khartoum and $700 billion for the rest of Sudan.
The UN is doing its own estimates.
Sudan’s oil production has more than halved to 24,000 barrels-per-day and its refining capabilities ceased as the main Al-Jaili oil refinery sustained $3 billion in damages during battles, Oil and Energy Minister Mohieddine Naeem said.
Without refining capacity, Sudan now exports all its crude and relies on imports, he said. It also struggles to maintain pipelines needed by South Sudan for its own exports.
Earlier this month, drones targeted fuel depots and the airport at the country’s main port city in an attack Sudan blamed on the UAE. The Gulf country denied the accusations.
All of Khartoum’s power stations have been destroyed, Naeem said. The national electrical company recently announced a plan to increase supply from Egypt to northern Sudan and said earlier in the year that repeated drone attacks to stations outside Khartoum were stretching its ability to keep the grid going.
Looted copper
Government forces re-took Khartoum earlier this year and as people return to houses turned upside down by looters, one distinctive feature has been deep holes drilled into walls and roads to uncover valuable copper wire.
On Sudan’s Nile Street, once its busiest throughway, there is a ditch about one meter (three feet) deep and 4 km (2.5 miles) long, stripped of wiring and with traces of burning.
Khartoum’s two main water stations went out of commission early in the war as RSF soldiers looted machinery and used fuel oil to power vehicles, according to Khartoum state spokesperson Altayeb Saadeddine.
Those who have remained in Khartoum resort to drinking water from the Nile or long-forgotten wells, exposing them to waterborne illnesses. But there are few hospitals equipped to treat them.
“There has been systematic sabotage by militias against hospitals, and most medical equipment has been looted and what remains has been deliberately destroyed,” said Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, putting losses to the health system at $11 billion.
With two or three million people looking at returning to Khartoum, interventions were needed to avoid further humanitarian emergencies like the cholera outbreak, said United Nations Development Programme resident representative Luca Renda.
But continued war and limited budget means a full-scale reconstruction plan is not in the works.
“What we can do ... with the capacity we have on the ground, is to look at smaller-scale infrastructure rehabilitation,” he said, like solar-power water pumps, hospitals, and schools.
In that way, he said, the war may provide an opportunity for decentralizing services away from Khartoum, and pursuing greener energy sources.
UN blasts new US-backed aid distribution system in Gaza
- The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid a hunger crisis in the territory
- Intense criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in Gaza
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: The UN on Wednesday condemned a US-backed aid system in Gaza after 47 people were injured during a chaotic food distribution, where the Israeli military said it did not open fire at crowds.
The issue of aid has come sharply into focus amid a hunger crisis coupled with intense criticism of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a shadowy group that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.
According to the UN, 47 people were injured in the mayhem that erupted on Tuesday when thousands of Palestinians desperate for food rushed into a GHF aid distribution site, while a Palestinian medical source said at least one had died.
Ajith Sunghay, the head of the UN Human Rights Office in the Palestinian territories, said most of the wounded had been hurt by gunfire, and based on the information he had, “it was shooting from the IDF” — the Israeli military.
The Israeli military rejected the accusation, with Col. Olivier Rafowicz telling AFP that Israeli soldiers “fired warning shots into the air, in the area outside” the center managed by the GHF, and “in no case toward the people.”
With the war sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel entering its 600th day on Wednesday, Palestinians in Gaza felt there was no reason to hope for a better future.
In Israel, the relatives of people held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attack longed for the return of their loved ones, with hundreds gathering in their name in Tel Aviv.
“Six hundred days have passed and nothing has changed. Death continues, and Israeli bombing does not stop,” said Bassam Daloul, 40, adding that “even hoping for a ceasefire feels like a dream and a nightmare.”
The UN has repeatedly hit out against the GHF, which faces accusations of failing to fulfil the principles of humanitarian work, and Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, on Wednesday reiterated the criticism.
“I believe it is a waste of resources and a distraction from atrocities. We already have an aid distribution system that is fit for purpose,” he said during a visit in Japan.
In Gaza, the civil defense agency said Israeli air strikes killed 16 people since dawn Wednesday.
Heba Jabr, 29, who sleeps in a tent in southern Gaza with her husband and their two children, was struggling to find food.
“Dying by bombing is much better than dying from the humiliation of hunger and being unable to provide bread and water for your children,” she said.
Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza for over two months, before allowing supplies in at a trickle last week.
A medical source in southern Gaza said that after Tuesday’s stampede at the GHF site “more than 40 injured people arrived at Nasser Hospital, the majority of them wounded by Israeli gunfire,” adding that at least one had died since.
The source added that “a number of other civilians also arrived at the hospital with various bruises.”
On Tuesday, the GHF said around “8,000 food boxes have been distributed so far... totaling 462,000 meals.”
UN agencies and aid groups have argued that the GHF’s designation of so-called secure distribution sites contravenes the principle of humanity because it would force already displaced people to move again in order to stay alive.
Israel stepped up its military offensive in Gaza earlier this month, while mediators push for a ceasefire that remains elusive.
In Israel, hundreds of people gathered to call for a ceasefire that would allow for the release of hostages held by militants in Gaza since their 2023 attack.
Protesters gathered along the country’s roads and on the main highway running through the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv at 6:29 am, the exact time the unprecedented October 7 attack began.
Most Israeli media headlines read “600 days,” and focused on the hostage families’ struggle to get their relatives home.
Other events were planned across Israel to make the 600th day of captivity for the 57 remaining hostages still in Gaza.
Some 1,218 people were killed in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Wednesday that at least 3,924 people had been killed in the territory since Israel ended a ceasefire on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,084, mostly civilians.
