The United Arab Emirates on Wednesday warned that any Israeli move to annex the occupied West Bank would be a “red line,” without specifying its possible impact on the landmark normalization accord between the two countries.

The warning came as Israel pressed ahead with the initial stages of its latest major offensive, in famine-stricken Gaza City. Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Wednesday killed at least 31 people, according to local hospitals.

Israelis took part in nationwide demonstrations to protest the call-up of 60,000 reserves for the expanded operation, which has sparked global condemnation and left the country increasingly isolated.

The demonstrators accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of prolonging the fighting for political purposes instead of reaching a ceasefire deal with Hamas that would free hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.

A rare warning from the UAE
The UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump, in which it and three other Arab countries forged ties with Israel. Trump has said he hopes to expand the accords in his second term, potentially to include regional power Saudi Arabia.

Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati diplomat, wrote on the social platform X that “annexation is a red line.”

He linked to a Times of Israel story that quoted another Emirati diplomat, Lana Nusseibeh, as saying annexation would “severely undermine the vision and spirit of (Abraham) Accords, end the pursuit of regional integration and would alter the widely shared consensus on what the trajectory of this conflict should be -- two states living side by side in peace, prosperity and security.”

It was unclear what action, if any, the UAE might take, and the Emirati Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions seeking clarification.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. Israel’s current government is staunchly opposed to Palestinian statehood and supports eventual annexation of much of the West Bank.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich held a news conference Wednesday in which he unveiled a map showing annexation of most of the West Bank, with six Palestinian cities left with limited autonomy, according to local media. It’s unclear if his plan has Netanyahu’s backing.

The Palestinians and much of the international community say annexation would all but end any remaining possibility of a two-state solution, which is widely seen internationally as the only way to resolve the decades-old conflict.