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Jordan Warns against Easing Virus Restrictions

Jordanian expatriates return to the country. (Petra news agency)
Jordanian expatriates return to the country. (Petra news agency)
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Jordan Warns against Easing Virus Restrictions

Jordanian expatriates return to the country. (Petra news agency)
Jordanian expatriates return to the country. (Petra news agency)

For the fifth consecutive day, Jordan announced that it had not reported any new COVID-19 cases among residents. It registered three among expatriates, bringing the total caseload to 1,176 since the outbreak of the pandemic.

According to a statement by the government and the Ministry of Health, the three new cases include two Jordanian citizens, who have recently returned from Saudi Arabia and were residing at quarantine-designated hotels, and a Jordanian truck driver, who was tested at the Al-Omari border crossing.

It said five patients have recovered and were discharged from Prince Hamzah Hospital, and a total of 5,808 lab tests were carried out, bringing the total to 460,383.

However, the Health Ministry warned that the danger of the pandemic is still present, calling on everyone to adhere to preventive measures, wear masks, practice social distancing and use the Aman.jo app to alert users if they were in contact with an infected person, and contribute to detecting virus-related cases.

The government had previously said that in case no new COVID-19 cases are registered among residents for 10 consecutive days, it would lift the daily night curfew.

However, National Committee for Epidemics spokesman, Nazir Obeidat warned against easing restrictions.

The registration of cases among expatriates is still a challenge the government is facing in its hasty efforts to ease restrictions, he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Jordan allowed the return of 20,000 expatriates in three stages during the last two months.

“A lax approach in dealing with the pandemic would again allow the spread of the virus in the country,” Obeidat warned.

Health Minister Saad Jaber said Saturday that a laboratory would open soon at the Queen Alia Airport to allow around 6,000 PCR tests per day.

Jordan's airports will reopen at the end of July, allowing tourists from a limited list of countries to visit the kingdom.

Asharq Al-Awsat noticed Jordanians flaunting preventive measures in public places, restaurants and shops. The government had warned that violators of the measures would be fined.

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Israeli Security Minister Enters Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound ‘In Prayer’ for Gaza Hostages

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)
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Israeli Security Minister Enters Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound ‘In Prayer’ for Gaza Hostages

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visits the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, also known to Jews as the Temple Mount, during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, in Jerusalem's Old City, December 26, 2024. (Itamar Ben-Gvir's spokesperson/Handout via Reuters)

Israel's ultranationalist security minister ascended to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Thursday for what he said was a "prayer" for hostages in Gaza, freshly challenging rules over one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East.

Israel's official position accepts decades-old rules restricting non-Muslim prayer at the compound, Islam's third holiest site and known as Temple Mount to Jews, who revere it as the site of two ancient temples.

Under a delicate decades-old "status quo" arrangement with Muslim authorities, the Al-Aqsa compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and, under rules dating back decades, Jews can visit but may not pray there.

In a post on X, hardline Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said: "I ascended today to our holy place, in prayer for the welfare of our soldiers, to swiftly return all the hostages and total victory with God's help."

The post included a picture of Ben-Gvir walking in the compound, situated on an elevated plaza in Jerusalem's walled Old City, but no images or video of him praying.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office immediately released a statement restating the official Israeli position.

Palestinian group Hamas took about 250 hostages in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies. In the ensuing war in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed over 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave.

Suggestions from Israeli ultranationalists that Israel would alter rules about religious observance at the Al-Aqsa compound have sparked violence with Palestinians in the past.

In August, Ben-Gvir repeated a call for Jews to be allowed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, drawing sharp criticism, and he has visited the mosque compound in the past.

Ben-Gvir, head of one of two religious-nationalist parties in Netanyahu's coalition, has a long record of making inflammatory statements appreciated by his own supporters, but conflicting with the government's official line.

Israeli police in the past have prevented ministers from ascending to the compound on the grounds that it endangers national security. Ben-Gvir's ministerial file gives him oversight over Israel's national police force.