These crimes against our people must end,’ says Palestinian prime minister
Updated 04 February 2025
Arab News
LONDON: The Palestinian Authority announced the formation of a task force on Tuesday to oversee the Gaza Strip’s reconstruction and coordinate humanitarian relief efforts with Egypt.
The PA’s task force will address urgent issues for the 2 million Palestinians in Gaza following 15 months of Israeli bombardment, which ended in January following a ceasefire.
Its responsibilities will include distributing aid, reopening roads, clearing debris, and providing adequate shelter for families whose homes have been destroyed.
The Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, which began in late 2023, has resulted in the deaths of at least 47,000 Palestinians, with the majority being women and children. According to the UN, about 60 percent of buildings in Gaza have been either damaged or destroyed during the military campaign.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that a PA-led Government Operations Room for Emergency Interventions is currently working to deliver as many essential services as possible to the people in Gaza, including water, electricity, healthcare, and education.
“This is a national responsibility toward our people, who have endured the horrors of war for the past 15 months,” he said, as reported by the Palestine News and Information Agency.
Mustafa added that Palestinians “will neither capitulate nor despair in the face of the international community’s failure to stop Israel’s war machine.”
He added: “These crimes against our people must end. We will continue our legitimate struggle for all our rights because we are certain that justice will prevail as no right is ever lost when fought for.”
Villagers offer harrowing accounts of one of the deadliest attacks in Sudan’s civil war
At least 200 people were killed in the village of Shag Al-Num, including many women and children
The attack was part of a larger civil war in Sudan, which began in 2023 due to tensions between military leaders and the RSF
Updated 8 sec ago
AP
CAIRO: When Ahlam Saeed awoke last month to the sound of gunfire and roaring vehicle motors, the 43-year-old widow rushed outside her home in war-torn Sudan to find a line of at least two dozen vehicles, many of them motorcycles carrying armed fighters. “They were firing at everything and in every direction,” the mother of four said. “In an instant, all of us in the village were fleeing for safety.” Many people were gunned down in their houses or while trying to flee. At least 200 people were killed, including many women and children, in the community of straw homes, according to a rights group tracking Sudan’s civil war. Saeed and her children — ages 9 to 15 — were among those who survived after rebel fighters rampaged through Shag Al-Num, the small farming village of several thousand people in Sudan’s Kordofan region. In interviews with The Associated Press, Saeed and four other villagers described the July 12 attack, one of the deadliest assaults since the war began more than two years ago over a power struggle between commanders of the military and the rival paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The villagers’ accounts add to the devastating toll of the conflict, which started in April 2023 and has wrecked the country in northeastern African. The fighting has killed more than 40,000 people, displaced as many as 14 million, caused disease outbreaks and pushed many places to the brink of famine. Atrocities, including mass killings of civilians and mass rape, have also been reported, particularly in Darfur, triggering an investigation by the International Criminal Court into potential war crimes and crimes against humanity. ‘Hell’s door was opened’ The villagers from Shag Al-Num said RSF fighters and their allied Janjaweed militias stormed into the community, looting houses and robbing residents, especially of women’s gold. Some victims were held at gunpoint. Some young villagers attempted to fight back by taking up rifles to defend their homes. The RSF fighters knocked them down and continued their rampage, witnesses said. “It was as if the hell’s door was opened,” Saeed said, sobbing. Her straw house and neighboring homes were burned down, and one RSF fighter seized her necklace. “We were dying of fear,” she said. The villagers said the fighters also sexually abused or raped many women. One of the women said she saw three fighters wearing RSF uniforms dragging a young woman into an abandoned house. She said she later met the woman, who said she was raped. Satellite imagery from July 13 and 14 showed “intentional arson attacks” and “a large smoke point” over the village as well as “razed and smoldering” buildings, the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health reported. In the two-day RSF attack in Shaq Al-Noum and surrounding areas, more than 450 civilians, including 35 children and two pregnant women, were killed, according to UNICEF. After the assault, many of the survivors fled, leaving behind a mostly deserted village. The RSF did not respond to questions about the attack from the AP. Both sides seek control of oil-rich Kordofan region
Beyond the village, the oil-rich Kordofan region has emerged as a major front line following the military’s recapture of Khartoum earlier this year. The warring parties have raced for control of the three-province region stretching across southern and central Sudan because it controls vital supply lines. “Kordofan has become the most strategic area of the country,” said Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The fighting has exacerbated the already dire conditions in the region. In Kadugli, the provincial capital city of South Kordofan province, “roads have been cut off, supply lines have collapsed and residents are walking miles just to search for salt or matches,” said Kadry Furany, country director for Sudan at Mercy Corps aid group. A mental health therapist in Obeid, the provincial capital of North Kordofan province, said the city received waves of displaced people in recent weeks, all from areas recently ambushed by the RSF. The therapist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of concerns about her safety, said she supported 10 women and girls who endured sexual abuse, including rape, in RSF-seized areas in July alone. Among the victims were two women from Shag Al-Num village, she said. “The conditions are tragic,” she said. Another epicenter of starvation and disease To the west of the Kordofan region is el-Fasher, the military’s last stronghold in the five-province Darfur region. The city — which has been under constant RSF bombardment for over a year — is one of the hardest hit by hunger and disease outbreaks, according to the UN The World Food Program has been unable to deliver aid by land. It warned this month that 300,000 people, who are “trapped, hungry and running out of time,” are at risk of starvation. “Everyone in el-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, the food program’s director for eastern and southern Africa. “Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.” The paramilitaries and their Janjaweed allies imposed a total blockade of el-Fasher, leaving no route out of the city that the RSF does not control, according to satellite imagery recently analyzed by the humanitarian lab at Yale. The blockade caused food prices to spike up to 460 percent higher than in the rest of Sudan, according to the African Center for Justice and Peace Studies. Most staples are scarce or no longer available. Civilians who want to leave the city are required to pass through a single RSF-controlled point, where they have been robbed, forced to pay bribes or killed, according to the Yale lab, aid workers and residents. On Aug. 2, a group of people, including women and children, attempted to flee the city. When they reached Garni, a village on a crucial supply route just northwest of the city, RSF fighters ambushed the area, residents said. “They tell you to leave, then they kill you,” said Al-Amin Ammar, a 63-year-old who said he escaped because he is old. “It’s a death trap.” At least 14 people were killed, and dozens of others were wounded in the village, said the Emergency Lawyers rights group said. Aside from fighting, the region has been ravaged by lack of food and a cholera outbreak, said Adam Regal, a spokesman for a local aid group known as General Coordination. Many people have nothing to eat and resorted to cattle fodder to survive, he said. Some have not found even fodder, he said. He shared images of emaciated children with their exhausted, malnourished mothers on the outskirts of el-Fasher or the nearby town of Tawila. “People don’t await food or medicine,” he said, “rather they await death.” The 12-year-old son of Sabah Hego, a widow, was admitted with cholera to a makeshift hospital in Tweila, joining dozens of other patients there. “He is sick, and dying,” Hego said of her youngest child. “He is not alone. There are many like him.”
A look at Gaza ceasefire talks after Hamas accepts a new proposal from Arab mediators/node/2612364/middle-east
A look at Gaza ceasefire talks after Hamas accepts a new proposal from Arab mediators
There would be a 60-day ceasefire in which Israeli forces would pull back to a buffer zone extending 800 meters (875 yards) into Gaza
Israel would allow 600 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter each day, a major increase that could help arrest what experts have described as the territory’s slide toward famine
Israel’s offensive has already killed over 62,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry
Updated 20 August 2025
AP
CAIRO: Hamas says it has accepted a proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire in the 22-month war sparked by its Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel. Israel has not yet responded and says it is still committed to defeating the militant group.
The latest proposal developed by Egypt and Qatar contains only slight modifications to an earlier one advanced by the United States and accepted by Israel, according to Egyptian and Hamas officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.
The deal would include a 60-day truce, the release of some of the hostages held by Hamas in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, a flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza and talks on a lasting ceasefire.
Israel has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is disarmed. President Donald Trump gave support to those goals Monday in a social media post, saying Hamas must be “confronted and destroyed” to ensure the return of the remaining hostages. A ceasefire, a hostage release and an influx of aid
The details of the latest proposal have not been made public, but the two Egyptian officials and two Hamas officials described the broad outlines to The Associated Press.
There would be a 60-day ceasefire in which Israeli forces would pull back to a buffer zone extending 800 meters (875 yards) into Gaza. The officials said Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, had proposed 1,500 meters (1,640 yards) and Hamas countered with 600 meters (656 yards) before the talks stalled last month.
Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the remains of 18 others in phases, in exchange for the release of around 1,700 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including 200 serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.
Hamas-led militants took 251 people hostage in the Oct. 7 attack and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians. Fifty hostages are still in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.
Israel would allow 600 trucks of humanitarian aid to enter each day, a major increase that could help arrest what experts have described as the territory’s slide toward famine. Israel allowed a similar amount of aid to enter during a ceasefire earlier this year.
During the temporary ceasefire, the sides would negotiate a lasting truce, the release of the remaining hostages and the further withdrawal of Israeli forces. Israel is committed to destroying Hamas
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that while he will halt the fighting temporarily to facilitate the release of hostages, he will not end the war until Hamas has been defeated and disarmed.
Even then, he says Israel will maintain security control over Gaza and facilitate the relocation of much of its population to other countries through what he describes as voluntary emigration. Palestinians and much of the international community view it as forcible expulsion.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu announced plans to occupy Gaza City and other densely populated areas, which would likely result in even more casualties and further waves of mass displacement. Those threats were partly aimed at pressuring Hamas.
Israel’s offensive has already killed over 62,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not say how many were civilians or combatants but says women and children make up around half of those killed. Vast areas of Gaza have been completely destroyed.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and run by medical professionals. The UN and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes them but has not provided its own numbers. Hamas is severely weakened but not defeated
Hamas has suffered heavy losses through nearly two years of war.
Most of its top leaders have been killed, its rocket supplies have been vastly depleted, and Israel has regularly announced the destruction of tunnel complexes and other military infrastructure. Iran and Hamas’ other regional allies are in disarray after Israeli and US strikes.
The Israeli military says it now controls at least 75 percent of Gaza, with much of the population — and the remnants of Hamas’ government and police force — largely confined to Gaza City, built-up refugee camps from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and Muwasi, a sprawling tent camp along the coast.
The hostages are Hamas’ last bargaining chip and its only hope of emerging from the war with something it can try to portray as a victory.
The militant group has said it will only release the remaining captives in return for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and a complete Israeli withdrawal. Hamas says it is willing to hand over power to other Palestinians but will not lay down its arms as long as Israel occupies lands the Palestinians want for a future state.
Israel says any arrangement that leaves Hamas intact and armed would allow it to eventually rebuild its forces and launch another Oct. 7-style attack. The US role is crucial
Israel has been tight-lipped about the talks, and it’s unclear when it will respond. The Security Cabinet, which would need to approve any such deal, usually meets on Thursdays.
In the meantime, all eyes are on Washington.
Trump helped to get a previous ceasefire across the finish line in January after former President Joe Biden’s administration and Arab mediators had spent months hammering it out. The US then offered its full support when Israel ended that truce and resumed its air and ground war in March.
Trump alone might be able to convince Israel to halt the war without trying to eradicate Hamas at the cost of countless more Palestinian lives and possibly the remaining hostages.
He says he wants to return the hostages and end the war but has not publicly pressured Israel. In a post Monday on his Truth Social website, Trump appeared once again to express full support for Netanyahu’s endgame.
“We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” he wrote. “Play to WIN, or don’t play at all!”
How Gaza’s hospitals became a battleground against Israeli bombs and hunger
Food shortages in the territory have hit exhausted medics as they struggle to help floods of severely malnourished patients
Accounts from the territory describe hospital staff unable to feed themselves or their families in latest blow to collapsed health system
Updated 20 August 2025
Jonathan Lessware
LONDON: In Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals, doctors, nurses and other medical staff are battling against what many fear could be their most insurmountable challenge in nearly two years of Israel’s war on the territory’s people — hunger.
“We go to work sometimes without eating and we treat patients while actually feeling dizzy, lightheaded and weak,” said Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, a physician working in the territory. “The starvation is not just hitting families in Gaza it’s hitting the health workers too.”
Gaza’s health sector has been decimated by Israel’s devastating military assault. Hospitals have been bombed, doctors killed and detained, and medical supplies cut off.
Beleaguered and bloodied, health care workers are now locked in a daily struggle against hunger and malnutrition affecting people across the entire territory.
Casualties surged into hospitals, and the facilities also became targets for Israeli airstrikes. (AFP)
If the medical staff cannot eat and are not strong enough to perform the painstaking work needed to treat a battered and malnourished population, the situation can only deteriorate.
In accounts provided to Arab News from medical charities, hospital workers have described their daily struggles to find enough food to sustain them through their long shifts and feed their families.
They describe colleagues fainting at work, struggling to continue their lifesaving care for those bombed, starved and shot at as they try to reach the meagre food supplies making it into the territory.
Abu Mughaisib, who is the deputy medical coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Gaza, said that despite the decades of conflict affecting the territory, he never imagined such a situation.
He said most days he and his colleagues eat only one basic meal of bread with canned food or lentils.
Some days the market is completely empty, and there are never any vegetables, fruit, or meat.
“Honestly, we don’t have options,” he said, almost anticipating that those outside of Gaza would not believe him.
Beleaguered and bloodied, health care workers are now locked in a daily struggle against hunger and malnutrition affecting people across the entire territory. (AFP)
“In the hospitals there is no food for the medical staff. Some health workers faint during their shift. They clean the wounds, they deliver babies, and perform surgeries on empty stomachs.
“Some of my colleagues started to lose weight rapidly. Some of them cannot produce milk to breastfeed their babies. This is not just burnout this is real physical starvation.”
Dr. Saeed Salah, medical director of the Patient’s Friends Benevolent Society Hospital in northern Gaza, described the food shortages as the “greatest crisis” his colleagues and patients have faced.
“Some members of our medical staff themselves are malnourished and can no longer sustain the energy needed to perform their duties,” he said, in response to Arab News questions passed through the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.
“Our emergency ward is overwhelmed with people who haven’t eaten for days and are in urgent need of IV fluids. In over 21 months of operating under crisis, we’ve never seen days like these.”
Summer Al-Jamal, a finance and admin assistant for MAP based at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, described the situation there as “deeply distressing.”
The hospital has been inundated with victims from shooting attacks on Palestinians gathered at aid distribution hubs nearby, as well as patients injured from Israeli bombings, or who are sick.
Increasingly, they have been treating malnourished families and their children.
“The hospital is heavily burdened with departments overwhelmed by trauma cases and critically injured patients,” she said after a recent visit to the facility. “The scale of suffering and the intensity of the emergency were unlike anything I had witnessed before.
FASTFACTS
• Two of three famine thresholds have been reached in Gaza, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification platform.
• Hunger cases crowd Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals, 94 percent of which are damaged or destroyed, the WHO said.
“The medical staff appear exhausted, physically and emotionally. Many looked pale, fatigued, and undernourished. The toll of the past weeks had left them drained.”
After Israel launched its latest Gaza campaign in response to the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, the territory’s health service soon came under fire.
Casualties surged into hospitals, and the facilities also became targets for Israeli airstrikes. Nearly two years into the conflict, the health service is broken.
Israel imposed a complete 11-week blockade on Gaza in March, leading to desperate shortages of medicines and equipment for hospitals, along with basic food for the entire population. (AFP)
Of the 36 hospitals in the territory before Israel’s current war on Gaza, only 18 remain partially operational, and less than 40 percent of primary health care facilities are still functional, according to the World Health Organization.
All the facilities have been damaged and are flooded with patients far beyond their maximum operating capacities.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,500 Palestinian health workers since October 2023, with the WHO recording at least 700 attacks on health care facilities in the territory.
Doctors and hospital staff have been detained, and more than 10,000 critically ill patients need to be evacuated.
And then there is the dwindling medical supplies. Israel imposed a complete 11-week blockade on Gaza in March, leading to desperate shortages of medicines and equipment for hospitals, along with basic food for the entire population.
If the medical staff cannot eat then they are not strong enough to perform the painstaking work needed to treat a battered and malnourished population. (AFP)
The main UN agency distributing aid was forced to stop operating and was eventually replaced by the US- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Some supplies have resumed but at a fraction of what aid agencies say is required.
The dire situation for the health sector was further exacerbated by the sharp increase in casualties last month as Israel ramped up its campaign in the face of an international outcry and widespread accusations of genocide.
The WHO reported 13,500 injuries in Gaza in July — the highest since the first three months of Israel’s war on the territory. Many of these took place when Israeli troops repeatedly opened fire on crowds of Palestinians as they waited to collect food from GHF distribution points.
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Amid all the carnage, the shortage of food means Gaza’s people are now dying from starvation.
Late last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global initiative that analyses food security, warned that the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza.” The body said there would be “widespread death” without immediate action.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday that 263 Palestinians had died of malnutrition and starvation, including 112 children, since the war started.
Of the 36 hospitals in the territory before Israel’s current war on Gaza, only 18 remain partially operational, and less than 40 percent of primary health care facilities are still functional. (Reuters)
Images of emaciated children being treated at hospitals have shocked the global community in recent weeks.
Israeli officials have claimed the numbers are inflated and that the children died from pre-existing health conditions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed reports of severe hunger as Hamas “lies” and insisted last week there is “no policy of starvation.”
His claims are at odds with those of doctors working in the territory, who have seen a surge in severe malnutrition cases.
Rowida Sabbah, MAP’s nutrition program lead in southern Gaza, described a recent case of a mother and her two children, aged 5 and 7, who had not eaten any bread for two months.
“For two days she had only been able to give them just water,” Sabbah said. The mother finally reached a medical hub for help. “She was crying when she received the supplies,” she said.
“Every time I see children suffering from severe hunger and wasting away, my heart breaks. They beg for anything … even just a slice of bread with a pinch of salt. That’s all they hope for.”
For medical staff, the food shortages have pushed them to breaking point. Accounts given to Arab News describe the daily battle to source the most meagre of supplies, and desperate searches for small quantities of flour now selling at vastly inflated prices.
“Even health workers, already stretched to their physical and mental limits, are working long hours on little food, growing weaker as shortages persist,” Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, told Arab News.
“No one can sustain this, yet they keep showing up because patients have no one else. We call for large-scale aid, including diverse and nutritious food, to be allowed via all routes.”
Support for Gaza’s medical teams has also come from more than 100 fellow health workers around the world who have spent time working in the territory during the conflict.
Some days the market is completely empty, and there are never any vegetables, fruit, or meat. (AFP)
Last week they signed a letter expressing solidarity with their Palestinian colleagues as they are “starved and shot by Israel” as part of a “methodical attack” of the health system.
“Doctors, nurses, and first responders are all rapidly losing weight due to forced starvation at the hands of the Israeli government,” the letter stated.
“Many suffer from hunger, dizziness and fainting episodes while performing operations and triaging patients in emergency rooms. Most have been displaced into tents after being forced from their homes, and many are surviving on less than a single serving of rice a day.”
The letter called for the immediate release of detained health workers, an end to attacks on medical facilities, and the lifting of Israel’s blockade of humanitarian supplies.
With little sign of progress on a ceasefire and Israel’s ramping up of military operations around Gaza City, doctors in the territory are bracing for things to get even worse.
Nearly two years into the conflict, the health service is broken. (Reuters)
Yet despite their hardship, they are working to provide the best treatment possible to a people brutalized by Israel’s war.
“We are also facing a severe shortage of therapeutic infant formula,” Salah at the PFBS hospital said, focusing on the immediate challenges.
“Mothers are dehydrated and unable to breastfeed, and pregnant women are suffering complications and are at increased risk of miscarriage. Malnourished patients are deteriorating.
“Without urgent intervention, more lives will be lost.”
UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) vehicles ride along a street in Marjaayoun, Southern Lebanon January 20, 2025. (Reuters)
Updated 19 August 2025
AFP
Lebanon president urges extension of UN peacekeepers’ mandate
Israel and the United States, which wields a veto on the Security Council, have reportedly opposed the renewal
UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been deployed since 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon and counts some 10,000 personnel from around 50 countries
Updated 19 August 2025
AFP
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday warned against ending the United Nations peacekeepers’ mandate in the country’s south, after the UN Security Council began debating extending their mission.
The annual mandate renewal this year comes after Lebanese authorities, under heavy US pressure, have committed to disarming Hezbollah by year end, following a November ceasefire deal that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities between the Iran-backed group and Israel.
Israel and the United States, which wields a veto on the Security Council, have reportedly opposed the renewal.
“Any timetable for the mandate of UNIFIL that is different from the actual needs will negatively impact the situation in the south, which still suffers from Israeli occupation,” Aoun told force commander Diodato Abagnara, according to a presidency statement.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon has been deployed since 1978 to separate Israel and Lebanon and counts some 10,000 personnel from around 50 countries.
The Security Council on Monday began debating a resolution drafted by France to extend the force for a year with the ultimate aim of withdrawing it.
Aoun said Beirut “has begun contacts with Security Council member states, and brotherly and friendly countries, to ensure the extension” of UNIFIL’s mandate.
He cited Lebanon’s need for the force to help “maintain security and stability in the south” and to support the army following the government’s decision to increase troop numbers there to 10,000 personnel.
Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah was to withdraw from near the Israeli border, while the Lebanese army was to bolster its deployment there.
Abagnara said on X that UNIFIL’s “close coordination” with the Lebanese army was “key to help restore stability.”
Last week, UNIFIL said that with its support, the army had deployed to more than 120 positions in the country’s south.
Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to strike Lebanon, saying it will do so until Hezbollah is disarmed. Israeli forces also occupy five areas of the south that it deems strategic.
The text of the draft resolution would extend UNIFIL’s mandate until August 31, 2026 but “indicates its intention to work on a withdrawal of UNIFIL.”
A vote of the 15-member Security Council is expected on August 25, before the force’s mandate expires at the end of the month.
Jordan, Lebanon confirm united stance on Gaza, regional stability during Amman talks
Hassan said the reality on the ground “does not reflect the illusion of a so-called Greater Israel, but rather an outcast, isolated Israel”
Updated 19 August 2025
Arab News
AMMAN: Jordanian Prime Minister Jafar Hassan and his Lebanese counterpart Nawaf Salam held talks in Amman on Tuesday, with both sides underscoring their rejection of Israel’s policies in Gaza and calling for intensified efforts to end the war in the enclave.
Hassan said the reality on the ground “does not reflect the illusion of a so-called Greater Israel, but rather an outcast, isolated Israel besieged regionally and internationally as a result of its policies of brutality and extremism,” he was quoted as saying by the Jordan News Agency.
He also cautioned against attempts to prolong the conflict under the pretext of such visions, stressing that the massacres taking place in Gaza and the West Bank “will not be forgiven by the peoples of the region and the world.”
He reiterated Jordan’s condemnation of the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory, urging full implementation of the ceasefire agreement and an immediate halt to attacks on Lebanon.
He also underlined Jordan’s backing of Lebanon’s sovereignty, stability, and institutions, in line with the directives of King Abdullah II.
On Palestine, Hassan called for the opening of all crossings into Gaza to allow humanitarian aid to reach civilians, holding Israel legally and morally responsible for the collapse of relief efforts in the enclave.
He also mentioned Jordan’s commitment to modernization at home while supporting Lebanon and Syria to consolidate sovereignty, strengthen institutions, and reinforce internal resilience.
During a second round of talks at a lunch hosted by Hassan, the two premiers agreed to reconvene the Jordanian-Lebanese Joint Higher Committee this year after nearly a decade of suspension. The body will focus on enhancing cooperation in trade, transportation, and energy.
Salam expressed Lebanon’s appreciation for Jordan’s steadfast support under the leadership of King Abdullah, describing Amman’s positions as “historic and strategic,” the JNA reported.
He emphasized the importance of Jordan’s voice in regional and international forums, and reaffirmed Lebanon’s commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative and a two-state solution as the only viable path to resolving the Palestinian issue.
Earlier on Tuesday, King Abdullah met with Salam, accompanied by Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah.
King Abdullah met with Salam, accompanied by Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah. (Jordan News Agency)
The king affirmed Jordan’s full support for Lebanon in safeguarding its security and sovereignty, and highlighted the importance of expanding cooperation, particularly in economic sectors.
The meeting also covered developments in Syria, with the king reiterating Jordan’s support for Syria’s efforts to preserve its stability, sovereignty, and the safety of its citizens. On Gaza, King Abdullah once again called for an immediate ceasefire and increased aid to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe.
He reaffirmed Jordan’s rejection of Israeli attempts to expand control in the West Bank and the wider region.
