Watan-Under the title “The United Arab Emirates’ Triple Game in Gaza,” French academic and historian Jean-Pierre Filiu wrote in a Le Monde opinion piece that the UAE, while deepening its strategic partnership with Israel, pretends to align with the Arab consensus on a Palestinian state and takes care to highlight its humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza.
According to Filiu, there is “no alternative—in fact, truly none” to Donald Trump’s plan, which envisions transforming Gaza into the “French Riviera of the Middle East” once it is emptied of its population. These statements were not made in the U.S. or Israel, but in Dubai last month by Yousef Al Otaiba, the influential Emirati ambassador to Washington.
Filiu notes that Al Otaiba, since assuming his post in 2008, has built strong ties with U.S. leaders across political lines and has led a massive promotional campaign for the UAE. He was at the heart of negotiations for the strategic partnership agreement between Israel and the UAE, signed in September 2020 in Washington as part of the Abraham Accords. During that time, Al Otaiba forged close relations with Donald Trump and his team—ties that have become increasingly significant.
A Superficial Consensus
Al Otaiba is close to UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and his younger brother, Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed. Thus, his statements are not slips of the tongue but reflect the UAE’s deeper policy orientation, even if the country formally joined the Arab consensus supporting Palestinian statehood, as seen at the recent Arab Summit in Cairo.
This comes as no surprise, Filiu continues, since the peace agreement between Israel and the UAE makes no mention of a Palestinian state, and aligns entirely with the Trump-Netanyahu “Peace to Prosperity” vision, unveiled in January 2020—a plan the Palestinian side unanimously rejected as it included annexation of parts of East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Trump’s 2020 plan at least included the possibility of returning control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority after disarming Hamas. But Netanyahu now firmly rejects even that, despite the risk of empowering Hamas. Meanwhile, the UAE works to undermine Mahmoud Abbas’s influence in Gaza by supporting his rival, Mohammed Dahlan, a Gaza native who leads a splinter faction of Fatah.
Filiu argues that Fatah flags seen in Gaza’s refugee camps are often those of Dahlan’s supporters, who—though living in the UAE—do not dare return to Gaza despite their significant backing.
Humanitarian Aid as a Pretext
According to the historian, the UAE’s well-funded operations fuel disarray within Fatah, ultimately strengthening Hamas, which only allows Dahlan’s affiliates to operate in purely humanitarian roles in Gaza.
With no credible Palestinian political partners, the UAE decided in March 2024 to cooperate with the U.S. NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK) to deliver food shipments by sea from Cyprus to Gaza—despite calls from humanitarian organizations to reopen land crossings.
However, this initiative collapsed after the Israeli airstrike on April 1, 2024, which killed three international volunteers, three British security guards, and a Palestinian driver. Filiu notes that while the UAE later sent 2,500 aid trucks via Egypt over the course of a year, this only covered five days’ worth of essential needs for Gaza’s population.
Aid Amid Silence: UAE’s Limited Impact in Gaza
Although Emirati officials attempted to curb the profiteering of Egyptian middlemen, their efforts met with limited success, the historian adds.
The residents who receive these Emirati aid packages appreciate their quality—whether food, clothing, or equipment. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed also oversaw the evacuation of hundreds of patients and wounded to Abu Dhabi. Yet Filiu points out that this number falls far short of the actual need, which requires around 12,000 medical evacuations.
Despite this humanitarian presence, the UAE has remained silent since Israel resumed its war on Gaza on March 17, 2025—a silence that Filiu interprets as implicit approval, particularly as Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, national security advisor and brother of the UAE president, visited the White House the day after, attending a dinner with Donald Trump—without any public mention of Gaza’s catastrophic situation.
-
-
-
-
-
-
