Palestinians and Israelis can fly together to the World Cup

Israeli and Palestinian fans will be allowed to fly together to the World Cup finals in Qatar under a deal between Qatar, Fifa and the Israeli authorities. After months of negotiation, Qatar agreed to direct charter flights from Israel for the first time, though only during the tournament. The countries have never had diplomatic relations. Israel has not qualified for the finals, but, nevertheless, Fifa has sold thousands of tickets to Israeli citizens. Qatar had to guarantee that Israelis could attend in order to stage it, and it represents a rare chance of travel to the Gulf. Over the past two years, under the Abraham Accords, Dubai and Bahrain have allowed the first tourist commercial flights from Israel.