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Jordan Stresses Two-State Solution to Resolve Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

A handout image made available by the Jordanian Armed Forces Media office on November 6, 2023, shows humanitarian aid being loaded into a Jordanian military cargo plane. (Photo by Jordanian Armed Forces / AFP)
A handout image made available by the Jordanian Armed Forces Media office on November 6, 2023, shows humanitarian aid being loaded into a Jordanian military cargo plane. (Photo by Jordanian Armed Forces / AFP)
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Jordan Stresses Two-State Solution to Resolve Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

A handout image made available by the Jordanian Armed Forces Media office on November 6, 2023, shows humanitarian aid being loaded into a Jordanian military cargo plane. (Photo by Jordanian Armed Forces / AFP)
A handout image made available by the Jordanian Armed Forces Media office on November 6, 2023, shows humanitarian aid being loaded into a Jordanian military cargo plane. (Photo by Jordanian Armed Forces / AFP)

Jordan's air force air-dropped urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza early on Monday, while King Abdullah headed to Brussels where he met Belgian, EU and NATO officials to discuss the latest developments in the Palestinian enclave.

Meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, King Abdullah called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the protection of civilians.

“Everyone today is paying the price of the absence of a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” he said.

He added that dealing with the day after the war must begin with addressing the root cause of the conflict on the basis of the two-state solution.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh held a meeting with speaker of the Lower House, members and heads of parliamentary committees and blocs to brief them about the country’s efforts to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza and ensure the delivery of aid to the people.

He condemned the Israeli attack and the “international silence” over its violations and atrocities against the Palestinian people.

“The immunity given for Israel and the silence on violations against civilians are a double standard,” the PM said, adding that any attempt to displace the Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank is a red line.

Earlier, a royal air force plane dropped urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza whose supplies were about to run out due to the delay in delivering aid through the Rafah crossing, Jordan's state news agency said citing a Jordanian military source.

The decision to send the plane was taken on Saturday during a meeting between military, political and security officials, added the source.

The US was informed of the plan during a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the kingdom where he met King Abdullah, it continued.

It revealed that more flights will be planned in the near future to deliver more aid to those in need.

Jordan has also completed preparations to set up a field hospital in Rafah near the border with Gaza.

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Arab World

Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ after Israeli Minister’s Criticism

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ after Israeli Minister’s Criticism

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.

Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican's various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.

"Yesterday, children were bombed," said the pope. "This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart."

The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel's military campaign against the Palestinian group Hamas.

In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that "what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide".

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope's remarks amounted to a "trivialization" of the term genocide.

Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.

The patriarch's office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope's remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.

The Israeli military said on Saturday the patriarch's entry had been approved and he would enter Gaza on Sunday, barring any major security issues. Aid from the patriarch's office entered last week, the military said.

Israel allows clerics to enter Gaza and "works in cooperation with the Christian community to make it easier for the Christian population that remains in the Gaza Strip – including coordinating its removal from the Gaza Strip to a third country," a statement from the military said.

The war began when Hamas-led Palestinian fighters attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel's retaliatory campaign, which it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed more than 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The campaign has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.

Israel says that at least a third of the dead have been fighters and says it tries to avoid harm to civilians but is battling combatants who it accuses of embedding among the population in dense urban areas. Hamas rejects this.