Palestinians fly to Cyprus in Israeli airport pilot program

JERUSALEM (AP) — Several dozen Palestinians have flown to Cyprus from an airport in southern Israel as part of a pilot program to allow Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to fly abroad. Forty-three residents of the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah and Nablus took off on Monday from the Ramon Airport near Israel’s resort city of Eilat. It’s part of a series of gestures Israel says it’s making to improve living conditions of Palestinians in both the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The airport said earlier this month that there would be twice weekly flights for Palestinians from Ramon airport to Antalya, Turkey, from late August and flights to Istanbul in September.