What Role Do Dahlan and the UAE Play in Gaza's New Maritime Corridor?

Many suspicions and questions have arisen regarding the proposed maritime corridor in the Gaza Strip, particularly due to the involvement of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the initiative.

The European Commission, the Republic of Cyprus, the UAE, and the United States jointly issued a statement on March 8 concerning the activation of a maritime corridor to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.

According to the statement released by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Republic of Cyprus will soon convene a meeting of senior officials to discuss expediting this maritime channel to support those in need of assistance. This channel complements aid provided via land and air routes, which also pass through Egypt and Jordan.

The statement further declared, "We will continue working with Israel to expand humanitarian aid delivery via land routes, emphasizing the necessity of facilitating additional roads and crossings to transport more aid to a larger number of people."

The United States announced an emergency mission led by the U.S. Army to establish a temporary sea pier in Gaza in collaboration with humanitarian partners and other countries aimed at delivering large quantities of aid by sea, in close coordination with the government of "Israel."

In response, "Tel Aviv" welcomed the anticipated opening of the maritime corridor with Gaza, provided that it undergoes security checks according to Israeli standards.

The statement claimed that "Israel will continue to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip in accordance with the rules of war and in coordination with the United States and our allies worldwide."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not provide details about the timing of the operation of the new corridor, which will be launched with Gaza, a region besieged by "Israel" and subjected to a devastating war that has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

Pressing Questions

The UAE's participation in the operation has raised many questions about the role of the new maritime corridor, especially since the Gulf state has a history of combating Palestinian resistance and engaging in normalization with the Israeli Occupation.

On March 8, 2024, Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, Kan, reported that "Israel immediately allowed the UAE to start" transporting humanitarian aid to Gaza via the maritime route through the Republic of Cyprus, stating that the "architect of this operation" is the prominent Palestinian leader, Mohammed Dahlan.

Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah leader, now serves as an advisor to Emirati Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and leads suspicious operations in Arab and African countries.

Amidst the aggression on Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan suddenly appeared in an interview in Abu Dhabi with The Economist, presenting his "post-war plan."

Mohammed Dahlan responded to rumors suggesting that he is the Israeli Occupation's choice to govern Gaza, rejecting the idea and affirming that he will be the person to restore order after the war ends.

He presented his qualifications for leadership, claiming to have intimate knowledge of Gaza and Israelis, having spent 40 years fighting for the Palestinian cause.

Dahlan has become a close advisor to Mohammed bin Zayed, alleging that he has injected $50 million annually from the UAE into Gaza and built a support network in refugee camps in the West Bank.

Sources familiar with the details, undisclosed by Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, claim that "Dahlan is coordinating with Hamas regarding the transfer of humanitarian aid from the Republic of Cyprus," stating that he met with Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, three weeks ago.

Hamas has not commented on the maritime corridor issue, but its senior official, Mohammed Nazzal, stated that the proposal "remains ambiguous and raises many questions."

Several Emirati ships are docked in the Republic of Cyprus, awaiting the arrival of food and humanitarian supplies, which will be delivered directly to beaches in northern Gaza, according to Kan.

This comes at a time when international efforts are accelerating to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip, amidst the sixth month of aggression on Gaza and amid hundreds of trucks piling up on the Egyptian side of the border.

Humanitarian supplies will undergo inspection on Cypriot territory under the close supervision of Israeli security officials who will specifically travel to the island in the eastern Mediterranean for this operation, according to Kan.

The statement indicated that "Israeli naval vessels will work to secure Emirati ships off the coast of Gaza during the delivery of aid and equipment to the beach."

Amid international warnings of an impending famine in northern Gaza, Arab countries, including the UAE, continue joint operations to drop food aid on the sector, but they do not meet the immense needs resulting from the catastrophe created by "Israel," prompting the idea of the port.

Confirming the UAE's role in the new plan, Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a UAE academic close to Mohammed bin Zayed, stated that the port is an "Emirati idea," and Abu Dhabi "coordinated with the Republic of Cyprus and invited European countries, the United States, and Britain to collaborate on its implementation."

الإمارات هي التي 
اقترحت فكرة هذا الممر البحري 
نسقت الامر مع قبرص 
دعت دول اوروبية وامريكا وبريطانيا للتعاون في تنفيذه 
ستقوم بايصال اول دفعة مساعدات الى غزة في اول اسبوع من رمضان 
وسترسل اكبر قدر من المساعدات الى غزة تباعا برا وبحرا وجوا#غزة_تستغيث و #الامارات_تغيث pic.twitter.com/uUo1vCppeg

— Abdulkhaleq Abdulla (@Abdulkhaleq_UAE) March 8, 2024

Israeli sources discussed the visit of the military advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Abu Dhabi in early March to discuss the operation supported by the Israeli government. This was followed by a visit from Emirati military officials to Tel Aviv to continue discussions about the operation.

A Frightening Scheme

"Israel" appears enthusiastic about the idea of the port, despite Hamas previously proposing it as part of measures to lift the blockade after the 2014 Gaza war, but it was rejected by "Tel Aviv."

According to the opposition website uae71 on March 10, the plan has consequences and hidden objectives, including pressuring Hamas to sign an agreement in favor of the Israeli Occupation.

Presenting the idea of the port currently postpones talk about the passage of shipments by land through the Egyptian Rafah crossing. The maritime corridor will take weeks to establish, according to U.S. military leaders, increasing pressure on Hamas to sign a ceasefire agreement for only six weeks, which Hamas has so far rejected.

Axios, close to the Israeli–Jewish lobby in the United States, stated that if Hamas and "Israel" agree to a ceasefire, it will be easier to transport more trucks and supplies to Gaza by land, and there will be no urgent need for a maritime route from the Republic of Cyprus.

This port, according to Axios, is an ominous sign that a ceasefire is unlikely to occur at the start of the blessed month of Ramadan, as Americans and Europeans are pressuring "Israel" to achieve it.

Others speak of the port as the beginning of a plan for mass displacement to Europe after failing to do so by land through the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.

Palestinian writer Abdel Bari Atwan says: "They want to empty Gaza of all its inhabitants," asking: "Has Israel, which quickly embraced the idea, become eager to feed the Palestinians, having killed 30,000 of them?"

In a recorded speech on his YouTube channel, he added: "This is a new conspiracy. President [Joe] Biden wants to fulfill all of Israel's demands in Gaza under the guise of humanitarianism. This is a conspiracy for displacement.

"In 1982, there was an American conspiracy to deport the Palestinian resistance from Lebanon on ships prepared by Washington to transport them to the Republic of Cyprus through the same Larnaca port and then to Tunisia, and this is a reproduction of the same idea."

He pointed out that "the plan aims to sever Gaza's ties with its Egyptian depth and end the role of the Rafah crossing so that Israel controls the land, sea, and air."

He asked: "How does Egypt accept ending its relationship with Gaza and Palestine? Did they silence it with billions from the UAE and the International Monetary Fund? This is a very big conspiracy, bigger than the catastrophe of 1948."

Ramy Abdu, the head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, says, "There are deep concerns about the proposed maritime corridor stemming from the identity of the implementing parties and the idea of isolating Gaza from its geographical location. There are fears regarding entrenching the division of the territory and the continuation of Israeli military control, ultimately paving the way for a military campaign in Rafah."

He further posted on X (formerly Twitter), "Available information up to this moment suggests that these parties cannot bypass the administrative status quo in Gaza, as they are already engaged with local governance bodies and Palestinian factions" to organize the day after Hamas is "eliminated," which is Israeli Occupation's declared goal for the aggression.

لا يجب أن نغفل أن الممر المائي كان مطلباً أساسياً للمقاومة الفلسطينية عام 2014 للتخفيف من حالة الحصار والابتزاز، لكن المقترح الحالي وإن كان يلتقي مع مطلبها إلا أن هناك مخاوف عميقة نتجت من هوية الأطراف المنفذة ومن فكرة عزل غزة عن تموضعها الجغرافي، ومخاوف تتعلق بتكريس تقسيم القطاع…

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) March 10, 2024

In turn, Ismail al-Thawabta, the General Manager of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said, "International parties, under Israeli guidance, have held 12 meetings with tribal leaders and clans in the Gaza Strip so far, as part of their efforts to discuss its administration after the war. All families approached have expressed complete rejection, considering them Israeli schemes to strike the Palestinian internal front."

Many believe that the UAE has become at the forefront of Arab regimes seeking to get rid of Hamas, hence aligning with U.S.–Israeli plans to achieve this goal.

Suspicious Record

During the aggression, the UAE, which officially normalized its relations with the Israeli Occupation in 2020, one of its prominent Gulf allies, announced the establishment of a comprehensive field hospital within the Gaza Strip after it began operating an airlift bridge to el-Arish Airport in Egypt, under the pretext of "providing necessary medical support to Palestinian brethren in the Gaza Strip."

The establishment of the field hospital raised suspicions among many after the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation revealed on November 7, 2023, that it was being coordinated specifically with the Israeli Occupation regime.

Since the start of Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the UAE has taken a different stance from other Gulf and Arab states by condemning Hamas's "attack" on "Israeli civilians" on October 7, 2023.

The UAE's involvement in the port highlights the Gulf state's track record of spying on Palestinian resistance for the Israeli Occupation and working on anything that serves normalization amid recurring discussions about Mohammed Dahlan's preparations to return to Gaza after "eliminating Hamas."

In July 2014, while Israel was waging a war on Gaza, one of the Palestinian resistance factions managed to capture a member of the UAE Red Crescent mission, who confessed to working in the Emirati security apparatus.

According to Egyptian media network and Palestinian media, a knowledgeable source in Gaza confirmed that suspicions arose about the Emirati citizen who entered under the guise of the Red Crescent mission and was detained and interrogated.

The source said, "He confessed to attempting to locate missile launch sites against the Zionist entity." The resistance released the Emirati officer at that time, and the Red Crescent mission was asked to leave Gaza immediately.

At that time, the Egyptian authorities prevented foreign medical delegations and popular aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip but allowed the UAE Red Crescent to enter the besieged enclave, which raised suspicion and doubt.

Hours after the Emirati delegation entered, rumors spread about the participation of intelligence officers within the team, especially after some of those doctors asked about missile launch sites under the pretext that they obstructed their work as they were launched from residential areas, according to witnesses from the Strip.

The New Khalij website reported at the time, citing sources, that Mohammed Dahlan, the leader, urgently contacted Hamas to "contain the Emirates scandal and its espionage through the Red Crescent for the Israelis."

Jihad Helles, a Palestinian writer and humanitarian relief worker, confirmed that the Emirates Red Crescent delegation, consisting of 50 doctors, left Gaza suddenly and without prior notice, leaving all their equipment behind at that time.

Today, Abu Dhabi's presence in the Joe Biden maritime port, despite its declared goals, adds to the harvest of its bad reputation among Arab and Islamic countries, as it is a position that is more in line with the Israeli Occupation and its supporters than its desire to achieve humanitarian goals, according to the uae71 website.