Talk to us about the details of this humanitarian mission,
the cost of logistics. How did it take place,
given as we know, it's very,
very difficult for anyone to get access into the Gaza
Strip.
Absolutely, Germano. So good morning.
This was during the trip essentially that we had
early in July. This was my second trip to that
region. And you could really tell that by the second
trip,
I think the the span of those was six months,
you could see that the humanitarian operation has been amplified
by by the UAE.
So, you know, we spoke to officials on the ground
who estimated the cost of this mission by the UAE
at around
700 in dollars. Now, that
amount could have increased by,
you know, by the month
since the month that that that we've been there.
But essentially this includes the medical facilities,
the warehouses, food, clothes, medical supplies that.
UAE has over a dozen desalina tion plans that provide
over 1,000,000 gallons of water for the Gazan people.
This is all based in.
But, you know, there's also a makeshift hospital on a
massive ship anchored by the Mediterranean Sea that hosts,
you know, Gazans that are in critical conditions,
people that wait on that hospital to be,
you know, moved, relocated to the UAE or go back
to Gaza once their condition has been
stabilized. So we met a lot of these people.
We saw the operation. And you could really tell that
the UAE is using,
you know, these diplomatic relations that it started with Israel,
these diplomatic relations, the existing ones that it has with
Egypt to sort of have this level
or this magnitude attitude of,
of an operation on the Egyptian side,
but also within the in their field hospital.
Yeah. I mean, you mentioned that
UAE has these diplomatic relations with Israel.
And of course, they're one of the few Arab countries
that signed a normalization agreement with Israel,
the Abraham Accords, back in 2020.
How do all of these humanitarian efforts fit into the
picture?
How is the UAE trying to increase its influence in
the region,
right? So I mean, look,
I mean, when you when we mentioned the word soft
power,
the UAE really comes to the spotlight,
right? So, you know, one of the the people that
we spoke to for this story,
LSE Stefan Hertog, was saying that part of the UAE
is reasoning behind this massive humanitarian operation could be
to, you know, combat. Some of the,
According to him, the Flack that it's been getting by
Arab countries and Arabs generally over normalization.
But we know from our sources that the UAE stands
for normalization has not changed since October 7th.
And that's mainly because what the officials keep telling us
is,
you know, what the normalization deal has allowed the UAE
to have dialogue with Israel.
And we know that they've kept this dialogue open.
Now, you know, Raymond Hashimi told us for this story
in a statement that the UAE would be willing to
send boots to the ground once a ceasefire has been
reached and once there's a reformed Palestinian Authority in charge
that really brings together all these elements about what happens
next.
And I think all parties involved in this conflict,
the ones that are talking,
the ones that are directly involved are really just waiting
for what happens next to ceasefire talks,
especially after the events of last week,
as you know, Jumana, the killing of Ismail Haniyeh and
Fuaatrikaran in in Lebanon.
So those are all, you know,
the UAEI think is looking intently at the situation.
It is waiting to see what happens.
So that's the situation.