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Jordan Lifts Lockdown on Fridays as Cases Drop

A man attends Friday prayers during the holy fasting month of Ramadan after the government eased the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, at al-Husseini mosque in Amman, Jordan April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Muath Freij
A man attends Friday prayers during the holy fasting month of Ramadan after the government eased the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, at al-Husseini mosque in Amman, Jordan April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Muath Freij
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Jordan Lifts Lockdown on Fridays as Cases Drop

A man attends Friday prayers during the holy fasting month of Ramadan after the government eased the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, at al-Husseini mosque in Amman, Jordan April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Muath Freij
A man attends Friday prayers during the holy fasting month of Ramadan after the government eased the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, at al-Husseini mosque in Amman, Jordan April 23, 2021. REUTERS/Muath Freij

Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs Sakhr Dodin has announced a government decision to lift the weekly lockdown on Friday, allowing citizens to perform evening and Tarawih prayers in mosques.

The curfew was imposed on Fridays in light of the high number of Covid-19 cases, with the last Friday lockdown announced on February 26, after the number of daily cases in February exceeded 4,000, according to Agence France Presse.

“The decision to ease lockdown measures on Fridays was taken at the request of 95 lawmakers,” said Dodin, the official spokesperson for the government.

However, the government decided to maintain curfew hours for both institutions and individuals; it starts at six and seven in the evening and continues until six in the morning the next day for economic sectors and citizens.

“This is the maximum that can be done at present, given the epidemiological situation and the emergence of mutations, the last of which is the Indian one, which has begun spreading in many countries across the globe,” Dudin added.

Jordan recorded on Wednesday 1,910 cases and 47 deaths, bringing the total number of infections and fatalities to 708,000 and 8,754, respectively. Last Sunday, Dudin said that the government aims for a “safe summer” and lifting all forms of restrictions by July.

In a joint press conference of the ministers of information and health, the government linked the decisions concerning precautionary measures to hospital capacities, the availability of intensive care beds and the demand for oxygen equipment.

Dr. Firas Al-Hawari, Jordan’s minister of health, announced that the government is reviewing precautionary measures every two weeks after assessing the epidemiological situation in the country, indicating that Jordan has moved from the first wave of infections to the second in two weeks, with the second wave 30 percent more severe than the previous one.

Hawari revealed that lifting Friday and night-time curfews contributed to the increase in the number of COVID-19 related cases and deaths during the second wave by 48% and 18% respectively, stressing that “had it not been for the restrictive measures in place, the number of cases would have increased by 250%.”

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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
"Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians," Oxfam said in a statement, in a count that included deliveries through Saturday.
"For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours," Oxfam added.
Israel, which has tightly controlled aid entering the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames what it says is the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid, AFP said.
In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday detailed what it called deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths."
They were the latest in a series of accusations leveled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas group.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
'Access blocked'
Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Oxfam said that it and other international aid groups have been "continually prevented from delivering life-saving aid" in northern Gaza since October 6 this year, when Israel intensified its bombardment of the territory.
"Thousands of people are estimated to still be cut off, but with humanitarian access blocked it's impossible to know exact numbers," Oxfam said.
"At the beginning of December, humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza were receiving calls from vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters that had completely run out of food and water."
Oxfam highlighted one instance of an aid delivery in November being disrupted by Israeli authorities.
"A convoy of 11 trucks last month was initially held up at the holding point by the Israeli military at Jabalia, where some food was taken by starving civilians," it said.
"After the green light to proceed to the destination was received, the trucks were then stopped further on at a military checkpoint. Soldiers forced the drivers to offload the aid in a militarized zone, which desperate civilians had no access to."
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians.