Jordan: Police Arrest ‘Riot Instigators’ in Baqaa Palestinian Refugee Camp

People protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, March 30, 2024. REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak

The Public Security Directorate in Jordan said on Sunday that its security forces have arrested a group of “riot instigators” in the Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp north of Amman after their attempted assault on security personnel and public properties.
A statement quoted the spokesman of the Directorate, Amer al-Sartawi, who said that “a group of riot instigators in Baqaa were arrested following their involvement in acts of rioting, arson, and stone throwing at vehicles on the public road”.
Sartawi said the involved persons were arrested and referred to interrogation.
He stressed that strict measures will be taken against anyone who tampers with security or “sabotages public property, disrupts the lives of citizens, or infringes on their rights..”
On its X account, the Directorate posted two short video footage containing scenes of rioting, setting fires, assaults and stone throwing at security officers.
Since October 7, 2023, Jordan, where nearly half of the population is of Palestinian origin, has been witnessing solidarity protests with the Gaza Strip.
Jordan’s Minister of Government Communication Muhannad Al-Mubaidin told the official Al-Mamlakah channel that “since the beginning of the Gaza war, Jordanians have expressed a responsible and respectful national position within the law to support the people of Gaza, but some parties want to hijack the street and engage in populism."
The Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp is the largest in Jordan and houses more than one hundred Palestinians refugees. It is located 20 kilometers north of the city of Amman.
Baqaa is one of six “emergency” refugee camps established in 1968 with the aim of accommodating Palestinian refugees displaced from the West Bank and Gaza as a result of the 1967 war.
The October 7 attack launched by Hamas against Israel left more than 1160 people dead on the Israeli side, most of whom were civilians, according to a count by Agence France Presse, based on Israeli official figures. About 250 Israelis and foreigners were kidnapped during the Hamas attack.
The war launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip in response to the attack has led to the deaths of more than 32,705 people so far, the majority of whom are women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.