After Family Mediation, Jordan's Prince Hamza Pledges Loyalty to King Abdullah

Jordan's King Abdullah (2nd R), Queen Noor (R), and Queen Rania (L) posing for a picture with Prince Hamza, and his new wife Princess Basma Otoum during their wedding ceremony in Amman. (AFPPetra)
Jordan's King Abdullah (2nd R), Queen Noor (R), and Queen Rania (L) posing for a picture with Prince Hamza, and his new wife Princess Basma Otoum during their wedding ceremony in Amman. (AFPPetra)
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After Family Mediation, Jordan's Prince Hamza Pledges Loyalty to King Abdullah

Jordan's King Abdullah (2nd R), Queen Noor (R), and Queen Rania (L) posing for a picture with Prince Hamza, and his new wife Princess Basma Otoum during their wedding ceremony in Amman. (AFPPetra)
Jordan's King Abdullah (2nd R), Queen Noor (R), and Queen Rania (L) posing for a picture with Prince Hamza, and his new wife Princess Basma Otoum during their wedding ceremony in Amman. (AFPPetra)

Jordan's Prince Hamza pledged allegiance to King Abdullah II on Monday as the monarch accepted mediation over a rift within the royal family that saw the prince placed under house arrest, the palace said.

The government has accused Hamza, an ex-crown prince and half-brother of King Abdullah, of a "wicked" plot and involvement in a seditious conspiracy to "destabilize the kingdom's security".

Hamza, detained along with at least 16 others, had earlier struck a defiant tone saying he had been placed under house arrest inside his Amman palace, but insisting he would not obey orders restricting his movement.

But in an apparent easing of the palace turmoil, the 41-year-old prince pledged his backing to King Abdullah.

"I will remain... faithful to the legacy of my ancestors, walking on their path, loyal to their path and their message and to His Majesty," he said in a signed letter, quoted by the palace.

"I will always be ready to help and support His Majesty the King and his Crown Prince," he is quoted as writing.

Hamza's statement came shortly after the palace said Abdullah had agreed to enter mediation "to handle the question of Prince Hamza within the framework of the Hashemite (ruling) family".

The job of mediator was handed to his uncle, Prince Hassan, himself a former heir to the throne.

King Abdullah, 59, named Hamza crown prince in 1999, in line with their father's dying wish, but later stripped him of the title and named his own son Prince Hussein heir to the throne.

Washington, Gulf countries, Egypt and the Arab League have all pledged support for King Abdullah, and a similar message came from Russia on Monday.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday reiterated Washington's backing of Abdullah.

"We value his integrity, his vision," Price told reporters. "The king has our full support."

"This sedition was nipped in the bud," Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Sunday, charging the plotters had linked up with foreign parties.

Safadi declined to identify the alleged foreign parties, but he said an individual "with links to foreign intelligence services" had offered to fly Hamza's wife out of the country.



Gaza Parents Rush to Vaccinate Kids against Polio Despite Fear of Violence

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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Gaza Parents Rush to Vaccinate Kids against Polio Despite Fear of Violence

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)

Ghadir Hajji rushed to a clinic on Sunday in hopes her five children would be among the first to get vaccinated against polio, which has re-emerged in war-ravaged Gaza.  

"They absolutely have to be vaccinated," she told AFP as the family waited in line for a vaccine drive announced after health officials reported last month the first case of polio in the besieged territory in a quarter of a century.  

"We received text messages from the ministry of health and we showed up right away."

She was joined by thousands of other Gazans whose fear of polio -- which is highly contagious and potentially fatal -- despite concerns for their personal security and rumors the vaccine would not be safe or effective.

Poliovirus is highly infectious and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water -- an increasingly common problem in Gaza with much of the territory's infrastructure destroyed by Israel in its war against Hamas.  

The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis, and is potentially fatal.  

At one clinic alone in Deir al-Balah nearly 2,000 children were vaccinated on Sunday, said Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA.  

The agency had mobile teams going from tent to tent, marking kids' thumbs with ink once they received their doses, Wateridge said.  

The first doses were administered on Saturday to an unspecified number of children in the southern city of Khan Younis, ahead of Sunday's large-scale rollout.  

The campaign aims to vaccinate more than 640,000 children in the besieged Palestinian territory, devastated by almost 11 months of war.  

- 'Anxious' -  

The World Health Organization (WHO) has delivered at least 1.26 million doses to Gaza already.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza has identified 67 vaccination centers -- mostly hospitals, smaller health centers and schools -- in central Gaza, 59 in southern Gaza and 33 in northern Gaza to administer the doses.  

The second dose of the vaccine must be given four weeks after the first.  

On Thursday, the WHO said that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day "humanitarian pauses" in northern, southern and central areas to facilitate vaccinations.  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu however has insisted that these pauses were not amounting to any kind of ceasefire in overall fighting in Gaza.  

"There are a lot of drones flying over central Gaza and we hope this vaccination campaign for children will be calm," Yasser Shaaban, medical director of Al-Awda hospital in central Gaza, said on Sunday.  

The humanitarian pause was meant to last from 6:00 am (0300 GMT) until 2:00 pm, according to a statement issued Saturday by COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body which oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories.  

Wateridge said she heard some gunfire in central Gaza after 6:00 am, but after that the area remained calm.  

"It's very hard to go from living in absolute fear for every second of your waking and even sleeping day to then suddenly be assured, 'Oh no it's fine now,'" said the UNRWA spokeswoman.  

"We're also anxious to see what happens after 2:00 pm. If the bombing continues after 2:00 pm this is of course going to impact the vaccination campaign... The only way to do this is a ceasefire."  

The war in Gaza erupted after Hamas's October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.  

Israel's retaliatory military campaign has so far killed at least 40,738 people in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry.  

The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.  

The devastation of Gaza's health sector exacerbated global alarm after the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said in August that tests in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.  

Palestinian mother Basma al-Batsh told AFP on Sunday she was "very happy" the vaccination drive was underway.  

"I want to protect my children because I was afraid that they would be affected and become disabled," she said.