According to media reports, a private Israeli plane departed from Ben Gurion International Airport and landed in Riyadh on 14 June.

Israeli public broadcasting agency Kan reported that the plane, identified as a 9H-VCA model, arrived in Tel Aviv from Italy on 13 June and set off to Riyadh the next morning through Jordanian airspace, stopping in Amman.

The aircraft stayed in the Saudi capital for around three hours, before making its way to the Greek city of Athens.

So far, neither Israeli nor Saudi officials have made any comment in relation to the trip.

The news comes amid recent speculation that a normalization of ties between Riyadh and Tel Aviv is in the making.

Last month, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said that Tel Aviv has been talking with the US and Gulf Arab countries on possibilities for normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia.

“We believe it is possible to have a normalization process with Saudi Arabia. It’s in our interest … We’ve already said that the next step after the Abraham Accords is to talk about a long and careful process,” Lapid said at the time.

As part of these efforts, Riyadh has relaxed the entry rules for Israeli passport holders, with reports saying dozens of businesspeople representing Tel Aviv have recently traveled to the kingdom.

Israeli media recently reported that a group of wealthy Israeli businesspeople were set to travel to the Saudi kingdom at the start of this month, with other reports revealing that several senior security and political figures from Israel have visited the kingdom over the past decade as part of US-sponsored efforts for the normalization of ties.

On 24 May, at the panel of the World Economic Forum, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, said: “We have always seen normalization as the end result … Normalization between the region and Israel will bring benefits, but we will not be able to reap those benefits unless we are able to address the issue of Palestine.”