HOLON, ISRAEL – OCTOBER 15: Israeli paediatric cardiologist Dr. Lior Sasson (2nd L) and his surgical team anxiously check the heart monitor during emergency surgery on Kirwan, an 11-year-old Kurdish boy from northern Iraq who was born with a hole in his heart, at the Wolfson Medical Center on October 15, 2007 in Holon, near Tel Aviv. Kirwan is one of two Iraqi children who were rushed to Israel last week for emergency heart surgery organized by Israel based organization “Save A Child’s Heart”. Since its foundation in 1996, “Save A Child’s Heart” has treated more than 1,700 children from 28 countries around the world, including dozens from Iraq, and brought most of them to Israel for their surgery. (Photo by David Silverman/Getty Images) A small airplane carrying an Israeli medical team along with equipment and medicine for treating the coronavirus landed in Sudan in an attempt to save the life of a Sudanese diplomat who has been working behind the scenes on the clandestine relations between the two countries.
Najwa Gadaheldam, a senior adviser to Sudan’s leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, died Wednesday, about 24 hours after the plane that had intended to transport her back to Israel for treatment landed in the Arab country, Israel’s Channel 13 first reported later that day.
Israel and Sudan do not have diplomatic relations. Gadaheldam had been managing the countries’ secret ties, according to the report.
The arrival was supposed to remain secret, but the plane and its unusual destination appeared on flight-tracking websites.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and al-Burhan met in February in Uganda in a meeting that the prime minister said was to discuss normalizing relations. Al-Burhan denied plans to establish official ties with Israel.
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