'Assign same value to Israeli, Palestinian lives': UAE says civilians in Gaza cannot be abandoned

The UAE has stressed that the United Nations Security Council must assign the same value to Palestinian life as it does to Israeli life.

"We cannot allow any equivocation on this point: there is no hierarchy of civilian lives," said Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

She was explaining the UAE's vote on the US and Russian draft resolutions on the war in Gaza. As the Israel-Hamas war rages on, the Security Council failed to adopt the competing resolutions, preventing a unified response to the crisis.

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Civilians in Gaza cannot be abandoned, stressed the Emirati envoy. "The security council must step up, as we have heard clearly from countless foreign ministers just yesterday, and that is the work the UAE will turn to now."

Referring to Israel's orders to evacuate more than one million people from northern to southern Gaza, Nusseibeh said: "We cannot be silent on the question of forced displacement and the evacuation order."

The Gaza Strip is occupied territory, she said, adding that there "should be no ambiguity about that".

The ambassador reiterated that the world must meet the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people. "The UN and NGOs have been very clear: An immediate humanitarian ceasefire; the release of all hostages; safe, sustained, and at scale humanitarian access; fuel for hospitals and desalination plants; water; and adherence to international humanitarian law."

Rejecting calls for a ceasefire, Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas over its October 7 attack that killed 1,400 people. Israel's retaliatory airstrikes have claimed over 6,500 lives.

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