BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Qatar Airways plane landed at Beirut airport on Monday carrying 142 passengers aboard, despite Israel's blockade on Lebanon. The Israeli army said the Qatar Airways flight had permission to land.
The landing came on the same day that Qatar became the first Arab country to commit troops to monitor a tense cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, pledging 200 to 300 soldiers to a U.N. peacekeeping force.
The Airbus 320 landed at Rafik Hariri International Airport in the first of what the national carrier of Qatar said would be daily flights from Doha to Beirut.
Local Lebanese TV stations touted it as the first plane to break an Israeli air and sea blockade on Lebanon that continues to be enforced after the bitter 34-day fighting that pitted Israel against the Hezbollah guerrillas.
But the Israeli army said the Qatar Airways flight was coordinated with Israel, and was the fourth Qatari flight to land with Israeli permission in Beirut since Friday _ an apparent reference to aid flights since this was the first known regularly scheduled commercial flight from Qatar.
In all, 20 airplanes landed at Beirut airport Monday, the army said, all of them with Israeli permission. Those include commercial flights from Amman that Israel had already previously allowed, plus aid flights.
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Qatar Airways did not comment on whether it had sought Israeli clearance, stating only that it had received approval from Lebanese authorities to operate the flights.
Israel has refused to lift its air andsea blockade of Lebanon, contending it needs to prevent Hezbollah guerrillas from rearming after the 34-day Israeli offensive that ended with an Aug. 14 cease-fire. But it has allowed limited international flights.
The 34-day war between the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Israel destroyed large sections of Lebanon's infrastructure, but runways at Beirut's international airport have been repaired.
Since the end of the war on Aug. 14 only two airlines, Royal Jordanian Airlines and Middle East Airlines, a Lebanese carrier, have been allowed by Israel to operate limited international flights to and from Beirut through Amman, the Jordanian capital.
Jordan Airlines is operating three flights a day to Beirut, whereas MEA is operating 80 flights a week, down from 130 flights before the war.
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