Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz landed in Bahrain on Wednesday afternoon to meet with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and other senior officials, The Times of Israel reported.
During the visit, which was his first to the tiny Gulf kingdom, Gantz will sign security agreements with his Bahraini counterpart.
The trip was kept secret until Gantz’s arrival in Manama due to security concerns, the report said. In addition to the king, Gantz will also meet with Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, and Minister of Defense Affairs Abdullah Bin Hassan Al Noaimi.
The Israeli defense minister will also visit the United States Navy’s 5th Fleet, and meet with its commander Brad Cooper.
The plane carrying Gantz for his first official visit to Bahrain was “the same Boeing 707 used by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to make his landmark trip to Israel in 1977, formally kicking off the peace process between Jerusalem and Cairo,” the report said.
“In 2005, the plane was sold by the Egyptian military to a civilian airline, which sold it to the Israeli Air Force in 2011. The IAF turned the passenger plane into a refueler, and it remains in use today,” it went on.
Gantz’s trip comes on the heels of a visit to the United Arab Emirates by Israeli President Isaac Herzog this week. Herzog met with Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed in the first presidential state visit to an Arab nation. Both the UAE and Bahrain normalized ties with Israel as part of the Trump-led Abraham Accords in 2020.
Both Gantz and Herzog’s flights flew over Saudi Arabian airspace.
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