Jordan to Resume Regular Commercial Flights from Sept. 8

Passengers arriving to Jordan walk before being checked with thermal scanners for coronavirus symptoms at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan March 4, 2020. (Reuters)
Passengers arriving to Jordan walk before being checked with thermal scanners for coronavirus symptoms at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan March 4, 2020. (Reuters)
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Jordan to Resume Regular Commercial Flights from Sept. 8

Passengers arriving to Jordan walk before being checked with thermal scanners for coronavirus symptoms at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan March 4, 2020. (Reuters)
Passengers arriving to Jordan walk before being checked with thermal scanners for coronavirus symptoms at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan March 4, 2020. (Reuters)

Jordan will resume regular international flights from Sept. 8 to help revive an economy badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, after delaying the move several times over the past month, officials said on Wednesday.

Government spokesman Amjad Adailah told a news conference that passengers entering Jordan would need proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of travel, alongside a compulsory test on arrival.

He said the rules would include a minimum of one week of self-isolation to a maximum two weeks of quarantine for foreign travelers depending on the severity of the pandemic in countries they came from.

The government had repeatedly postponed reopening Amman's Alia International Airport, a regional hub, over fears that travelers could bring about a spike in infections. But in recent days worries had mounted about the impact of further delays on the debt-burdened economy.

Jordan has seen almost a doubling of cases in the last month to a total of 2,161 along with 15 deaths - a much smaller known toll than in many other Middle East countries - but authorities remain worried about a severe outbreak.

The closure of Amman's airport dealt a damaging blow to the aid-dependent economy by paralyzing tourism, a major revenue source that was enjoying an unprecedented boom before the pandemic crisis.



WHO: Medicine Critically Low Due to Gaza Aid Blockade

Palestinians gather at a damaged building, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia, in Gaza City, April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
Palestinians gather at a damaged building, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia, in Gaza City, April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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WHO: Medicine Critically Low Due to Gaza Aid Blockade

Palestinians gather at a damaged building, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia, in Gaza City, April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
Palestinians gather at a damaged building, at the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia, in Gaza City, April 10, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Medicine stocks are critically low due to the aid blockade in Gaza, making it hard to keep hospitals even partially operational, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"We are critically low in our three warehouses, on antibiotics, IV fluids and blood bags," WHO official Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link from Jerusalem.

The Israeli military on Friday issued an urgent warning to residents in several neighborhoods in northern Gaza, calling on them to evacuate immediately. Strikes earlier this week killed at least 23 people, health officials said, including eight women and eight children.

Since Israel ended an eight-week ceasefire last month, it said it will push further into Gaza until Hamas releases the hostages. More than 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, according to the United Nations.

Israel imposed a blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle. It has pledged to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor through it.