Jordan’s King Participates in Gaza Aid Airdrop

The Jordanian King, accompanied by military leaders, monitored the delivery of aid to the residents of Gaza on Tuesday. (Military Media)
The Jordanian King, accompanied by military leaders, monitored the delivery of aid to the residents of Gaza on Tuesday. (Military Media)
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Jordan’s King Participates in Gaza Aid Airdrop

The Jordanian King, accompanied by military leaders, monitored the delivery of aid to the residents of Gaza on Tuesday. (Military Media)
The Jordanian King, accompanied by military leaders, monitored the delivery of aid to the residents of Gaza on Tuesday. (Military Media)

Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Tuesday participated in an airdrop of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, according to the military.

"Six C130 aircraft, including three from the Royal Jordanian Air Force and three from the UAE, Egypt, and France, took off from the capital Amman as part of a humanitarian aid operation aimed at alleviating the suffering of Gaza residents,'' the army said in a statement.

It said the king directly monitored the preparation and loading process before the plane departed from King Abdullah II Air Base.

The move is the second by the monarch as official media had earlier shared a video of him during a relief airdrop operation to Gaza on Feb 11.

The operation "aimed at delivering aid to the population directly and drop it along the coast of the Gaza Strip from north to south," the Jordanian army statement said.

It comprised "relief and food supplies, including ready-made meals of high nutritional value, to alleviate the suffering of the people of the Gaza Strip.”

"One of the aircraft was allocated to the Jordanian field hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, which suffers from a severe shortage of essential supplies,'' it added.

The Jordanian Armed Forces announced on Monday that they conducted four airdrops to deliver humanitarian aid to the people in the Gaza Strip.

The airdrops were carried out by four C130 aircraft, one of which belongs to the French Armed Forces, it said.

JAF said that the participation of the French army in the operation underscores international support for Jordan’s humanitarian commitment to the people of Gaza.

“It also reflects the strong bilateral relations between Jordan and France and reaffirms Jordan’s pivotal role in coordinating international efforts to deliver essential aid to the war-torn strip.”

Aid was dropped to 11 sites along the Gaza coast from its northern edge to the south for civilians to collect, army spokesperson Mustafa Hiyari said.

Jordan has conducted a total of 16 air-drop operations since the war broke out on October 7.



Cyprus Says Syria Will Take Back Citizens Trying to Reach the Mediterranean Island by Boat

Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
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Cyprus Says Syria Will Take Back Citizens Trying to Reach the Mediterranean Island by Boat

Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)
Migrants stand behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021. (AP)

Syria has agreed to take back any of its citizens intercepted trying to reach Cyprus by boat, the Mediterranean island nation's deputy minister for migration said Monday.

Nicholas Ioannides says two inflatable boats, each carrying 30 Syrians, were already turned back in recent days in line with a bilateral search and rescue agreement that Cyprus and Syria now have in place.

Officials didn't share further details about the agreement.

Cypriot navy and police patrol boats intercepted the two vessels on May 9th and 10th after they put out a call for help. They were outside Cypriot territorial waters but within the island's search and rescue area of responsibility, a government statement said. They were subsequently escorted back to a port in the Syrian city of Tartus.

Ioannides told private TV station Antenna there’s been an uptick of boatloads of migrants trying to reach Cyprus from Syria, unlike in recent years when vessels would primarily depart from Lebanon. Cyprus and Lebanon have a long-standing agreement to send back migrants.

He said Cypriot authorities and their Syrian counterparts are trying to fight back against human traffickers who are supplying an underground market for laborers.

According to Ioannides, traffickers apparently cut deals with local employers to bring in Syrian laborers who pick up work right away, despite laws that prevent asylum-seekers from working before the completion of a nine-month residency period.

“The message we’re sending is that the Cyprus Republic won’t tolerate the abuse of the asylum system from people who aren’t eligible for either asylum or international protection and just come here only to work,” Ioannides said.

The bilateral agreement is compounded by the Cypriot government’s decision last week not to automatically grant asylum to Syrian migrants, but to examine their applications individually on merit and according to international and European laws.

From a total of 19,000 pending asylum applications, 13,000 have been filed by Syrian nationals, according to figures quoted by Ioannides.

Since Assad was toppled in December last year and a new transitional government took power, some 2,300 Syrians have either dropped their asylum claims or rescinded their international protection status, while 2,100 have already departed Cyprus for Syria.

Both the United Nations refugee agency and Europe’s top human rights body have urged the Cyprus government to stop pushing back migrants trying to reach the island by boat. Cyprus strongly denies it’s committing any pushbacks according to its definition.