A tweet has gone viral on the Internet in which an Israeli journalist has accused the United Arab Emirates of being complicit in Israel\u2019s bombardment of Gaza through letting its aircraft join the aerial campaign against the besieged coastal enclave.
\nThe tweet by Israeli journalist Edy Cohen claims that an Emirati pilot had been involved in recent air raids on positions of Palestinian resistance groups inside the Gaza Strip.
\nHe said the pilot “was part of the Israeli air force in the bombing of\u201d resistance forces in Gaza “three weeks ago”, Presstv Reported.
\nHe went on to challenge the Emirati deputy police chief, Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, who had apparently denied the participation of UAE pilots in Israel’s aerial assaults against Gaza.
\n\u201cDoes Dahi Khalfan Tamim deny the presence of an Emirati pilot who was part of the Israeli air force in the bombing of … Gaza three weeks ago,\u201d Cohen said in his tweet, adding, \u201cHe trains on our Israeli f35s. I challenge him to deny it.\u201d
\n Officials in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv have not yet made any comment on the claim.
\nPress TV cannot confirm his claims independently.
\nCohen’s tweet comes over a month after Israeli media reported a visit by an Emirati military delegation to the occupied territories for talks with the regime\u2019s air force on the \u201cperformance\u201d of advanced US-made F-35 stealth fighter jets.
\nThe UAE is said to be after purchasing its own fleet of F-35 fighter jets.
\nThe UAE — along with other Persian Gulf regimes — has no formal ties with Tel Aviv and portrays itself as a staunch defender of Palestinian struggles against Israel’s occupation.
\nOn the surface, Abu Dhabi usually criticizes Israel’s recourse to deadly violence in Gaza and donates funds to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Palestinian territory.
\nHowever, the UAE and Israel are widely reported to have promoted their clandestine and backchannel cooperation over the past years.
\nIn June, the New Yorker magazine reported that Israel had maintained a secret but extremely close relationship with the UAE for more than two decades, with a special focus on intelligence sharing and military cooperation, including potential weapons deals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A tweet has gone viral on the Internet in which an Israeli journalist has accused the United Arab Emirates of being complicit in Israel\u2019s bombardment of Gaza through letting its aircraft join the aerial campaign against the besieged coastal enclave. The tweet by Israeli journalist Edy Cohen claims that an Emirati pilot had been involved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,6],"tags":[320,212,145,954],"yoast_head":"\n