Israeli plane emergency landing in Turkey.. Ankara refuses to provide it with fuel

Israeli airline El Al announced the end of the crisis of its plane that made an emergency landing in Turkey, as the authorities refused to provide it with fuel to resume its flight.

The company announced on Sunday that one of its planes, which was heading from Warsaw to Tel Aviv, was not allowed to refuel at Antalya Airport, after it made an emergency landing in Turkey to evacuate a passenger for medical reasons.

It said in a statement that "Turkish workers at Antalya Airport refused to refuel the flight before it took off to Israel, even though the case was medical."

The company explained that "a passenger was evacuated to receive treatment, and then the plane took off to Rhodes in Greece, where it will refuel before heading to Israel."

Turkish diplomatic sources confirmed that the plane was allowed to make an emergency landing after one of its passengers suffered a health problem.

“The plane was scheduled to be refueled for humanitarian reasons, but as the procedures were about to be completed, the pilot decided to leave of his own free will,” a Turkish diplomatic source said.

The Times of Israel reported that the plane remained on the Antalya runway for several hours before taking off for Rhodes.

Relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on October 7, and all direct flights between the two countries have been canceled since then.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza.