A touch of Abu Dhabi has arrived in El-Arish, a small city in Northern Sinai approximately 50 kilometres from Gaza. Once rarely visited by outsiders, this coastal location is now bustling with Emirati volunteers clad in cargo pants and beige vests adorned with the flag of the United Arab Emirates.
They are working alongside UAE government officials, Red Crescent workers, and hospital staff in the Egyptian area just outside the strip, as part of a humanitarian initiative aimed at assisting more than 2M people whose lives have been upended by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Since the conflict began nearly ten months ago, UAE’s aid efforts in El-Arish and the Palestinian territories have cost around $700M, according to Sultan Mohammed Al Shamsi, one of the Emirati officials managing the operations, as reported to Bloomberg in early July.
This includes the establishment of a field hospital in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which has treated nearly 50,000 individuals according to its staff, and a second makeshift medical facility on a ship anchored nearby in the Mediterranean Sea.
The UAE’s involvement highlights the growing regional influence of the Gulf nation, which has developed relations with Israel and reinforced its connections with Egypt in recent years — including through a $35B investment to facilitate an International Monetary Fund bailout.
The UAE is leveraging these relationships and its substantial oil wealth to take a leading role in diplomatic and aid efforts related to the conflict and has shown a willingness to assist in preparing for a postwar situation — including potentially deploying security forces into Gaza. However, its influence has limits, as the conflict shows no signs of ending and Israeli leaders have largely ignored international calls for a ceasefire.
