Amid Israel’s continuous airstrikes in Gaza, a number of Arab states have begun retaliatory moves against Israel.
This Thursday, and in reaction to Israel’s continuous airstrikes against Palestinians in Gaza, Bahrain’s parliament issued a statement, announcing the decision to recall its ambassador to Israel and suspend economic ties with the Jewish regime.
According to a statement that was published on the Bahraini parliament website, “the Israeli ambassador had already left Bahrain, while Bahrain called back its ambassador from Israel and decided to suspend all economic relations with Tel Aviv.”
Speaking of the reason for such harsh measures against Israel, the statement added that the retaliatory moves were based on the kingdom’s “solid and historical stance that supports the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
“The Council of Representatives affirms that the continuation of war and military operations, and the continuing Israeli escalation in light of the lack of respect for international humanitarian law, prompts the Council to demand more decisions and measures that preserve the lives of innocent people and civilians in Gaza and all Palestinian areas.” the parliament statement continued.
Likewise, Bahrain’s National Communication Center also approved the retaliatory moves by the country’s parliament and said in a separate statement that the “priority of efforts at this stage must be focused on protecting the lives of civilians in accordance with international humanitarian law and working to secure urgent humanitarian corridors to deliver relief and medical aid to the Gaza Strip.”
Although the Bahraini Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet affirmed the parliament’s decisions about Israel, the news of Israel’s boycott by Bahrain has been widely reported by several news agencies in and out of the Arab country, including Israeli news media outlets.
Oman also reacted to Israel’s brutality in Gaza
This week, Oman also joined Bahrain and began taking retaliatory measures against Israel in response to its bombardments of Gaza. This Monday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the Sultanate of Oman had recently decided to prohibit Israeli aircraft from flying within the Arab country’s airspace.
The report also noted that Oman’s decision would cause a huge rise in flight ticket prices in Israel and that the decision would also result in longer flights to the Far East, particularly Thailand, adding approximately two and a half hours to the journey for Israelis.
“Two days ago, an Israeli plane was asked to perform an evacuation mission for the Thai government. However, it could not traverse Omani airspace, forcing us to choose a considerably longer route,” the report said Monday.
What is worrying for Israel regarding Bahrain’s case is that Bahrain is one of the few Arab countries that first agreed to normalize relations with the Jewish regime. Back in September 2020, Bahrain, along with the UAE, inked the normalization deal with Israel, known as the Abraham Accord. Ever since, Israel has been ceaselessly trying to extend the deal to other Arab countries in the region, including Saudi Arabia.
