Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
The UAE has contributed 42 per cent of the total aid sent to Gaza since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas in October 2023, topping the list of donor countries.
The UAE's aid contributions have been valued at $828 million, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
The Emirates was among the first countries to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with President Sheikh Mohamed launching the Gallant Knight operation to send vital aid by land, air and sea.
This week, the country sent a new batch of ambulances to Gaza. Last month, four UAE aid convoys packed with supplies entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing, carrying essential supplies and winter materials. The convoys consisted of 41 lorries carrying more than 514 tonnes of aid including food, medical items, children's nutritional supplements, clothing, shelter materials and hygiene packages for women, state news agency Wam reported.
Dr Richard Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the Palestinian Territory, thanked the UAE for its continuous support in bolstering Gaza’s struggling health services, including the medical evacuation of patients from Gaza.
Under Sheikh Mohamed's initiative to treat Palestinians in the country’s hospitals, 2,127 patients and companions have been brought to the UAE in 22 medical evacuations.
The UAE has also made substantial efforts to provide advanced care to sick and severely injured Palestinians. Since it began operations in December last year, the UAE Field Hospital in the Gaza Strip has treated 50,489 patients. A floating hospital anchored in Al Arish Port in Egypt has treated 7,554 patients since it was launched in February. The Emirates has established two other hospitals, one with a centre dedicated to providing prosthetic limbs for Palestinians injured in the war.
Stephen Anderson, World Food Programme representative to the Gulf Co-operation Council, pointed out that as food insecurity in Gaza reaches inhumane levels, the UAE's steadfast commitment to supporting the Palestinian people serves as an inspiring example.
So far, the UAE has helped deliver 4,021 tonnes of essential supplies after establishing a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza with international partners. Additionally, the "Birds of Goodness" operation carried out 53 airdrops, delivering 3,623 tonnes of food and relief items to inaccessible areas.
In the space of a year, the UAE has sent 1,620 aid convoys, six shiploads of supplies and 519 airlifts carrying more than 47,000 tonnes of essential items.
Eltayeb Adam, Unicef area representative for the Gulf, emphasised the UAE's efforts to provide life-saving supplies and administer polio vaccines to more than 557,000 children under a $5 million pledge to the UN campaign is a testament to the strength of global solidarity.
A network of desalination plants established by the UAE has helped deliver more than 130 million gallons of clean drinking water to the Gaza Strip. The six plants, on the Rafah border, produce about 1.6 million gallons of water daily and have the capacity to serve up to 600,000 Palestinians.
The UAE has also provided refuge to wounded Gazans and helped them rebuild shattered lives at a dedicated treatment centre at Abu Dhabi's Emirates Humanitarian City.
Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Co-operation, recently told The National the aid deliveries are “part of the UAE’s continuing commitment to alleviate the immense suffering of Palestinians".
One year of war in Gaza – in pictures
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
India squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari
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Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
