Turkiye denies refusing fuel to Israel plane following emergency landing

A Boeing Co. 787-8 passenger aircraft, operated by El Al Israel Airlines, takes off from Ben Gurion International airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, on 30 November, 2021 [Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images]

Turkish diplomatic sources have denied Israeli media claims that a flight by Israel’s El Al carrier was refused fuel after being forced to make an emergency landing in the country.

Diplomatic Sources told Anadolu that the plane was en route from the Polish capital Warsaw to Tel Aviv. It was allowed to make an emergency landing at Antalya Airport after a passenger fell seriously ill.

“The emergency landing was granted due to the passenger’s illness. Refuelling was to be provided on humanitarian grounds, but the captain decided to depart voluntarily before the procedure was completed,” Anadolu quoted the source as saying.

Relations between Israel and Turkiye have deteriorated as a result of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza, leading to a cessation of all flights between the two countries.

Read: Turkiye condemns Israel FM’s calling Erdogan ‘a war criminal’

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.