Day: 23 March 2024

Cairo: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Saturday renewed his call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and allowing more humanitarian aid into the besieged Strip.

“Preventing the entry of aid is a moral scandal, and Palestinian children, women and men are living an endless nightmare,” he told a press conference during a visit he paid to the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

He denounced halting trucks on one side of the crossing, while starvation is on the other side, demanding access of aid to Gaza and the release of hostages.

He also warned that any other attacks would make matters worse for Palestinian civilians, the hostages and the people of the region, referring to a planned Israeli offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza, which is internationally opposed.

Guterres said the aim of his visit was to shed light on the difficulties and pain suffered by the Palestinians in Gaza, adding that the vast majority of world countries are fed up with what is happening in
Gaza.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Cairo: The Arab League slammed on Saturday Israel’s occupation government’s plan to confiscate 8,000 dunams of land in the Jordan Valley for settlement expansion purposes.

According to Jamal Rushdi, the spokesperson for the Secretary-General of the Arab League, the decision, which coincided with the US Secretary of State visit to the region, reflects an Israeli attempt to consolidate the illegal settlement reality and challenge the international will to implement the two-state solution. He added that the decision makes this solution impossible by expanding settlements and continuing to seize and confiscate land, especially in Area C, which constitutes about 60% of the area of the West Bank.

The spokesperson stressed that the occupation’s crimes in Gaza, no matter how heinous and brutal they are, should not divert attention from the ongoing Israeli plan to nibble away at the land and eliminate what remains of the two-state solution. He warned of the danger of what the occupation government is doing in destro
ying the future political horizon for the Palestinians.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Amman: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Ayman Safadi, spoke with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, over the phone on Saturday and denounced the terrorist attack that claimed several innocent lives in Moscow yesterday.

Safadi expressed his deepest condolences to the Russian government and people, and wished a speedy recovery to the injured.

Safadi stressed Jordan’s unwavering position in rejecting terrorism in all its forms, especially that targeting innocent civilians, underlining the importance of cooperation by the entire international community to confront and combat it.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Amman: 36 Jordanians have been evacuated over the last two days, according to the Directorate of Operations and Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. The Ministry had previously announced that 61 individuals had started the process of being evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Egypt via the Rafah crossing the day before yesterday.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Sufyan Qudah stated that today, 18 of the 36 Jordanians who were evacuated from Gaza to Egypt were transferred to the Kingdom via the Rafah crossing on board a ship owned by the Arab Bridge Maritime Company, working with the Ministry of Transport. The ship arrived at the port of Aqaba from Nuweiba.

Qudah added that the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority welcomed them, offered assistance and medical care, and relocated those who desired to the capital, while 18 Jordanians arrived in Cairo.

According to Qudah, 799 Jordanians were evacuated from Gaza to the Arab Republic of Egypt via the Rafah crossing, out of 1,247 on the m
inistry’s list.

He emphasized that since the beginning of the evacuation efforts from Gaza, a team from the Jordanian embassy in Egypt has remained on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing to oversee the evacuation operations of Jordanians who are currently residing in Gaza and to offer them any kind of assistance in a manner that ensures their security and safety. Additionally, he emphasized the need to keep up evacuation efforts using all available methods for as long as they are needed.

He reiterated the invitation to Jordanians residing and present in Gaza to contact the Ministry’s Directorate of Operations and Consular Affairs to request help around the clock at the following numbers:

Source: Jordan News Agency

Moscow: The Investigative Committee of Russia announced on Saturday that the death toll from the attack that targeted the shopping mall in Krasnogorsk on the outskirts of Moscow has risen to 133, with 107 others injured.

According to the committee, 107 of the injured in the terrorist attack are still receiving treatment in medical facilities, 3 of them children, 42 are in critical condition, and 15 are in extremely critical condition.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Beirut: Israeli warplanes carried out more attacks on multiple southern Lebanese districts on Saturday evening. For several hours, an Israeli spy plane hovered above the Zahle District’s airspace in the Lebanese Bekaa Valley, all the way to the city of Baalbek.

A Lebanese security source told a Petra correspondent in Beirut that Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes targeting homes in the towns of Naqoura, Aita al-Shaab, Kafr Kila, Khiam, and Wadi Saluki, and completely destroyed them.

Hezbollah announced in statements that it had targeted the Ruwaisat Al-Alam site in the occupied Lebanese hills of Kafr Shuba with artillery shells and hit it directly. It also announced that the Al-Malikiyah site had been targeted with artillery shells.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Amman: Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, demanded that Israeli occupation forces immediately lift their siege of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city.

“WHO and partners have lost contact with health personnel at Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza since the ongoing raid began, and we are seeking information on the patients’ condition and if they are receiving needed care,” Ghebreyesus said in a post on his official X account.

“Accessing Al-Shifa is now impossible, and there are reports of health workers being arrested and detained,” the WHO chief added.

“Report from a doctor in Al-Shifa hospital in northern #Gaza via a UN colleague: – 50 health workers (most of them junior or volunteers) and 143 patients all kept in one building since the second day of the raid, with extremely limited food, water and only one nonfunctional toilet,” Ghebreyesus noted.

“Patients are in critical condition, many lying on the floor. Three patients in need of intensive care. Two p
atients on life support died due to a lack of electricity. Patients have no companions or care takers; no basic medical supplies, no dressing, no medicines available; ?health workers have requested urgent patient referrals,” he explained.

“These conditions are utterly inhumane. We call for an immediate end to the siege and appeal for safe access to ensure patients get the care they need. Ceasefire!,” Ghebreyesus concluded.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Amman: The Jordan Seismological Observatory (JSO) announced on Saturday evening that it recorded an earthquake at 9:36pm near Tubas, Palestine, northwest of the Dead Sea.

According to the JSO, the earthquake measured 2.9 on the Richter scale at a depth of 5 km, northwest of the Dead Sea.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Amman: His Majesty King Abdullah II has expressed condolences to Russian President Vladimir Putin over the victims of the terrorist attack that targeted the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on Friday.

In a cable sent to President Putin, His Majesty condemned the cowardly terrorist attack, expressing Jordan’s solidarity with Russia in countering terrorism.

The King expressed condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Amman: The Al-Qassam Brigades announced on Saturday the death of Israeli prisoner Bigev Boukhataf (34 years old) as a result of a lack of medicine and food.

“We had previously warned that the enemy’s prisoners were suffering from the same conditions that our people are suffering from, from hunger, deprivation, and lack of food and medicine, and that the disease was now threatening the lives of a number of them,” Brigades spokesperson Abu Ubaida said in a statement.

He noted that “although the prisoner survived the occupation bombing, he did not survive the lack of food and medicine.”

Source: Jordan News Agency

Amman: A delegation from the Senate participated in the consultative coordination meeting of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which was held on the sidelines of the IPU’s 148th General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Senate delegation was chaired by President of the Senate’s Administrative Committee Senator, Khaled Al-Bakkar, and included a number of senators, the Senate said Saturday in a statment.

The delegation requested that the IPU adopt a draft resolution within the emergency item at the IPU meeting, which included a request for “an immediate cessation of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the entry of humanitarian aid,” which Algeria had also submitted.

According to the Senate’s statement, Jordan, Algeria, and Palestine were authorized to talk with the other nations that provided comparable emergency provisions in order to integrate and present them on behalf of the political groups that adopted them.

The Senate delegation met with the Palestinia
n and Algerian representatives to devise an action plan for meeting with the remaining participating delegations to rally further support for the Jordanian-Algerian resolution proposal.

The International Parliament passes only one emergency item, which requires parliaments to urge their governments to carry out the resolution’s provisions.

Source: Jordan News Agency

His Excellency Field Marshal Mahdi Al-Mashat, Head of the Supreme Political Council, sent a message of condolence to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the friendly Russian people, and the families of the victims in the criminal attack near the capital, Moscow.

His Excellency President Al-Mashat condemned in the strongest terms the criminal attack that took place in a hall near the Russian capital, Moscow, which resulted in many victims and injuries. He wished recovery for all those injured.

Source: Yemen News Agency