A. Blinken arrived in Jordan on Saturday evening, where he was supposed to meet with King Abdullah II on Sunday.
Israel’s war once morest the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip began following a bloody October 7 attack by the militants, which Israel says killed regarding 1,140 people, mostly civilians.
The militants also took regarding 250 people hostage that day, of whom Israeli officials say 132 remain in the Gaza Strip and at least 24 are believed to have been killed.
In response, Israel vowed to destroy the group and launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion that reduced much of the Gaza Strip to rubble.
At least 22,835 people have been killed in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7.
On the X social network, the Ministry of Jordan stated that the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ayman Safadi, during the meeting with A. Blinken, emphasized that “it is necessary to immediately stop the aggression, protect the civilian population of the Gaza Strip and provide adequate and long-term humanitarian and medical assistance in all in the territories of the Gaza Strip”.
AFPTV footage shows A. Blinken visiting the regional coordination warehouse of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in the Jordanian capital. The secretary is currently working to ensure that as much humanitarian aid as possible reaches the Palestinian enclave.
During the visit, Sheri Ritsema-Anderson, the senior UN official in Jordan, described the situation in the Gaza Strip to Blinken as unlike anything she had seen in her 15 years of working in the Middle East.
It is “catastrophic. It’s an epic,” she told reporters.
Tensions in the region rose on Tuesday when Saleh al-Arouri, the deputy leader of Hamas, was killed in a strike on an Iranian-backed Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut. According to a US Defense Department official, the attack was carried out by Israel.
Later on Sunday, A. Blinken will go to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
#Continuing #visit #Middle #East #Blinken #visited #Jordan
2024-07-06 10:08:13
