Nadeen Ayoub, the first Palestinian to compete in Miss Universe, will step onto the stage at the height of one of the most harrowing periods in her people’s history, determined to show they are more than headlines of war.

“We’re more than our struggle and pain,” she told AFP in Dubai, where she is preparing to raise the Palestinian flag at the pageant in Thailand in November.

“Right now, our people need a voice and we don’t want our identity to be erased,” she said, nearly two years into the Israel-Hamas war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

As Israel intensifies its onslaught, causing what the United Nations has called a famine in Gaza City and widespread destruction in the territory, Ayoub said she wanted to showcase her homeland’s rich heritage and beauty, to

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