The United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday that it intends to treat 1,000 Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip in its hospitals, without specifying how they will leave the besieged territory and reach the UAE. Israel has intensified its blockade and bombing of Gaza for about four weeks in response to the attack on October 7 launched by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), which Israeli authorities claim resulted in the deaths of 1,400 people. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Since October 7, the borders of the Gaza Strip with Egypt, the only exit point alongside the completely closed border crossings with Israel, have been largely shut down, although several hundred foreign nationals and a few injured Palestinians have crossed into Egypt for treatment since Wednesday. Qatar mediated this agreement to allow some people to leave Gaza, with a diplomatic source stating that about 7,500 holders of foreign passports would leave Gaza over the course of approximately two weeks.
The official Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan instructed hospitals "to host 1,000 Palestinian children along with their families from the Gaza Strip to provide all types of medical and health care they need." It was not immediately clear whether these children and their families would be able to leave Gaza under the agreement mediated by Qatar, which also involves Israel and the United States.
The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to emailed inquiries about the nation's plans to provide treatment and host the Palestinians, and the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi declined to comment. WAM clarified that the Palestinian children "will return" to their homeland after they have recovered.
