Jordan says it won’t deploy troops in Gaza to replace Israeli forces

AMMAN, Jordan

Jordan said Wednesday it will not send troops to the Gaza Strip to replace Israeli forces in the Palestinian enclave.

“We will not clean up after [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Giorgos Gerapetritis in Athens.

“We will not deploy troops to Gaza as a substitute for Israeli forces or place ourselves in the catastrophic reality he (Netanyahu) has created,” he added.

Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Tuesday evening that an alternative to Hamas in Gaza would emerge with a new policy in the coming days, acknowledging the difficulty of eradicating the group entirely.

“What we seek is a comprehensive plan, not only to halt the war but also to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on a two-state solution,” Safadi said.

“This essentially means that any approach dealing with Gaza cannot be separate from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories,” he added.

The top Jordanian diplomat highlighted the danger of a regional spillover from the Gaza conflict.

“The Israeli government does not want peace, and we cannot allow the war on Gaza to persist (…). It must cease,” Safadi said.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 37,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio