Sitting onstage alongside Brett McGurk, one of the White House’s top Middle East officials, Mr. Safadi said that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza was “not self-defense” but “blatant aggression.” He also argued that the international community was failing to hold Israel accountable to international law and was sending a message to people across the Arab world that “Israel can do whatever it wants.”

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When the floor opened for questions from the audience, Mr. McGurk was mobbed with critical inquiries about American policy in the Middle East.

Speaking on a subsequent panel, Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati official, said he sometimes wondered whether the war was “another Iraq moment,” rising fears about how the conflict was fueling extremism and radicalization across the region.