Israel cannot be allowed to continue to threaten regional security with impunity: Jordan

AMMAN, Jordan

Israel cannot be allowed to continue to threaten regional security with impunity, Jordan said Thursday, calling for sanctions and an end to arms sales to the country.

“The lies continue. Israeli officials who blatantly enable war crimes against the Palestinian people try to justify the coldblooded massacring of innocent Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and violate every tenant of international law,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi wrote on X.

Israeli officials “are now attempting in vain to divert global attention away from their aggression on Gaza and the West Bank by spreading disinformation about the reality of the threats to regional security and about Jordan. But no one is fooled,” he added.

Safadi stressed that “the biggest threat to regional security is Israel’s occupation of Palestine, racist policies, illegal measures and continued war against Palestinians.”

“Radicals who celebrate the killing of children, use starvation as a weapon, bomb hospitals and schools, attack UN humanitarian missions, violate the sanctity of Muslim and Christian holy sites in occupied Jerusalem, and deny the right of the Palestinian people to life have no credibility,” he added.

Safadi urged the European Union and the international community “to act immediately and hold those promoting death and hatred accountable.”

He said “sanctions must be imposed. Sales of weapons to Israel must stop.”

“Israel cannot be allowed to continue to violate international law, defy the will of the international community, massacre Palestinians and threaten regional security with impunity.”

On Thursday, the Israeli army said that five Palestinians were killed by its troops inside a mosque in the Nur Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank during an operation, bringing the death toll in the territory to 16 since Wednesday.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an attack on Oct. 7 last year by the Palestinian group Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

The onslaught has resulted in more than 40,600 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and over 93,800 injuries, according to local health authorities.

An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio