GAZIANTEP - It’s not often that an Israeli flag is seen flying next to an Iranian flag, but as United Hatzalah of Israel’s earthquake relief team landed in Turkey on Tuesday evening, this rare event occurred, displaying how the global community had come together.
The aircraft was organized by the emergency service with El Al subsidiary Sun D’or in coordination with the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Israeli embassy in Turkey, and consequently proudly displayed Israeli flags on the cockpit window.
United Hatzalah’s plane, carrying 25 emergency response personnel and 10 tons of medical and humanitarian aid, taxied into a slot at Gaziantep airport.
The parking spot placed the Israeli plane right next to an Iranian military plane, likely also on a mission related to the earthquake. As the Israeli plane sported flags, an Iranian flag was painted on the other craft’s empennage.
Countries put aside differences to help Turkey
On the right side of United Hatzalah’s plane, separated by one private aircraft, was a Qatari airforce McDonnell Douglas/Boeing C-17 Globemaster III. While Qatar’s relationship isn’t as antagonistic to Israel as Iran, it also has had an incredibly strained diplomatic history with the Jewish State.
A United Hatzalah team member said that it wasn’t uncommon in such missions that people that might otherwise be enemies would both work on the same field to the same objective — saving lives.