ABU DHABI

Around 130,000 Israelis have visited the UAE since the normalization agreement was signed between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv in mid-September.

“About 130,000 Israelis have visited the Emirates since the signing of the Abrahamic Treaty [the normalization agreement] in September 2020,” Chargé d'Affaires of the Israeli diplomatic mission Eitan Naih said in a statement carried by the official Emirates News Agency.

Naih expected that "about 50,000 Israelis will visit the UAE on a monthly basis during the winter season, and the number of tourists will increase once the procedures related to the coronavirus vaccine were completed."

In mid-September 2020, the UAE and Bahrain signed two normalization agreements with Israel, in a ceremony held at the White House with the participation of former US president Donald Trump, amid widespread Palestinian rejection.

On Jan. 26, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said it had opened its general consulate in Dubai, two days after opening an embassy in Abu Dhabi, the first in a Gulf state.