Jordan’s King Abdullah reiterates two-state Palestinian solution in talks with Israel’s Gantz

Jordan's King Abdullah II meets with the Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz in Amman, Jordan March 29, 2022. (Reuters)
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Updated 29 March 2022
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Jordan’s King Abdullah reiterates two-state Palestinian solution in talks with Israel’s Gantz

  • Meeting part of King Abdullah’s efforts to create a new horizon to achieve just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the two-state solution
  • King reiterated need to respect and preserve the historic and legal status quo of Jerusalem

AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday met with Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz in Amman, just one day following the Jordanian monarch’s meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

The meeting was part of King Abdullah’s efforts to create a new horizon to achieve just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the two-state solution, according to a Jordanian Royal Court statement.

The King reiterated the need to respect and preserve the historic and legal status quo of Jerusalem and to remove all obstacles hindering the freedom of worship in the old city ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, the statement said.

Jordan has been the custodian of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites since the 1920s. The Jordanian custodianship was reaffirmed in the peace deal with Israel in 1994.   

The Israeli media quoted a statement from Gantz’s office saying that the defense minister discussed with the king the steps that Israel intends to take ahead of Ramadan in order to preserve freedom of worship in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Gantz also discussed security coordination during the holy days as well as additional steps that could be taken to improve the lives of Palestinians.

King Abdullah and Gantz also met in Amman in January this year, marking the first high-profile Jordanian-Israeli meeting in years. The meeting followed the strained Amman-Tel Aviv relationship during Benjamin Netanyahu’s premiership.

The king’s meeting with Gantz also came just one day following an official visit of the Jordanian monarch to Ramallah for a meeting with Abbas, the first since 2017. He stressed the need to maintain calm in the occupied West Bank and to respect the rights of Muslims to worship at Al-Aqsa Mosque without provocation or interference, the Royal Court said.

A well-informed Jordanian source told Arab News on Tuesday that the Israeli President Isaac Herzog will visit Jordan on Wednesday for a meeting with King Abdullah.

The Israeli media also unveiled a meeting last week in Amman between Israel’s Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi to discuss security arrangements ahead of Ramadan.

In remarks to Arab News, political analyst Amer Sabaileh said that Jordan has recently intensified its coordination with the Israelis and Palestinians in a bid to cool rising tension in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank ahead of Ramadan.

Sabaileh explained that Jordan seeks to avoid tension in the occupied territories during the holy month that could trigger another escalation similar to events of May last year which culminated in Israel launching a large-scale military operation on Gaza.

Tensions erupted last Ramadan when Israel tried to expel Palestinian families from the East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood.

The security escalation in the West Bank and Gaza triggered massive rallies and protests in Amman near the Israeli embassy and elsewhere across the kingdom.

According to Sabaileh, the Amman-Tel Aviv relationship has enjoyed a “noticeable” improvement since Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett came to office.

He explained that Jordan is seeking to capitalize on this improved relationship with Israel to push for new peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis.

 


A Kurdish militant group decides to disband and disarm as part of a peace initiative with Turkiye

Updated 3 sec ago
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A Kurdish militant group decides to disband and disarm as part of a peace initiative with Turkiye

ANKARA: A Kurdish militant group announced a historic decision Monday to disband and disarm as part of a new peace initiative with Turkiye, after four decades of armed conflict.
The decision by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, was announced by the Firat News Agency, a media outlet close to the group. It comes days after it convened a party congress in northern Iraq.
In February, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group to convene a congress and formally decide to disband, marking a pivotal step toward ending the decades-long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s.
On March 1, the PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire, but attached conditions, including the creation of a legal framework for peace negotiations.
The group has led an armed insurgency since 1984 that has left claimed tens of thousands of lives. It is listed as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies.


Israel is not committed to any ceasefire or prisoner release with Hamas

Updated 12 May 2025
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Israel is not committed to any ceasefire or prisoner release with Hamas

DUBAI: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel did not commit to any ceasefire or prisoners’ release with Hamas in a statement early on Monday.

The agreement only stipulates a safe corridor that would allow Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander’s release he said.

Negotiations for a possible deal to secure the release of all hostages in Gaza would continue "under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting", Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
 


Israel’s blockade means Gaza’s hospitals cannot provide food to recovering patients

Updated 12 May 2025
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Israel’s blockade means Gaza’s hospitals cannot provide food to recovering patients

  • Hospital patients are among the most vulnerable as Palestinians across Gaza struggle to feed themselves, with Israel’s blockade on food and other supplies entering the territory now in its third month

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: It cost a fortune, she said, but Asmaa Fayez managed to buy a few zucchinis in a Gaza market. She cooked them with rice and brought it to her 4-year-old son, who has been in the hospital for the past week. The soup was his only meal of the day, and he asked for more.
“It’s all finished, darling,” Fayez replied softly. Still, it was an improvement from the canned beans and tuna she brings on other days, she said.
Hospital patients are among the most vulnerable as Palestinians across Gaza struggle to feed themselves, with Israel’s blockade on food and other supplies entering the territory now in its third month.
With hospitals unable to provide food, families must bring whatever they can find for loved ones.
“Most, if not all, wounded patients have lost weight, especially in the past two months,” Dr. Khaled Alserr, a general surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told The Associated Press. Nutritional supplements for intensive care unit patients are lacking, he said.
“Our hands are tied when it comes to making the best choice for patients. Choices are limited,” he said.
Hunger worsens as supplies dwindle
Malnutrition is on the rise across Gaza, aid groups say. Thousands of children have been found with acute malnutrition in the past month, but adults as well are not getting proper nutrients, according to the UN It estimates that 16,000 pregnant women and new mothers this year face acute malnutrition.
Since Israel’s blockade began on March 2, food sources have been drying up. Aid groups have stopped food distribution. Bakeries have closed. Charity kitchens handing out bowls of pasta or lentils remain the last lifeline for most of the population, but they are rapidly closing for lack of supplies, the UN says.
Markets are empty of almost everything but canned goods and small amounts of vegetables, and prices have been rising. Local production of vegetables has plummeted because Israeli forces have damaged 80 percent of Gaza’s farmlands, the UN says, and much of the rest is inaccessible inside newly declared military zones.
Fayez’s son, Ali Al-Dbary, was admitted to Nasser Hospital because of a blocked intestine, suffering from severe cramps and unable to use the bathroom. Fayez believes it’s because he has been eating little but canned goods. She splurged on the zucchini, which now costs around $10 a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Before the war it was less than a dollar.
Doctors said the hospital doesn’t have a functioning scanner to diagnose her son and decide whether he needs surgery.
Israel says it imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March to pressure Hamas to release its remaining hostages and disarm.
Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel’s offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.
Concern over Israeli plans to control aid
Israeli officials have asserted that enough food entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year. Rights groups have disputed that and called the blockade a “starvation tactic” and a potential war crime.
Now Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, using private contractors to distribute supplies. The UN and aid groups have rejected the idea, saying it could restrict who is eligible to give and receive aid and could force large numbers of Palestinians to move — which would violate international law.

Those under care at hospitals, and their families who scrounge to feed them, would face further challenges under Israel’s proposal. Moving to reach aid could be out of the question.
Another patient at Nasser Hospital, 19-year-old Asmaa Faraj, had shrapnel in her chest from an airstrike that hit close to her tent and a nearby charity kitchen in camps for displaced people outside Khan Younis.
When the AP visited, the only food she had was a small bag of dates, a date cookie and some water bottles. Her sister brought her some pickles.
“People used to bring fruits as a gift when they visited sick people in hospitals,” said the sister, Salwa Faraj. “Today, we have bottles of water.”
She said her sister needs protein, fruits and vegetables but none are available.
Mohammed Al-Bursh managed to find a few cans of tuna and beans to bring for his 30-year-old son, Sobhi, who was wounded in an airstrike three months ago. Sobhi’s left foot was amputated, and he has two shattered vertebrae in his neck.
Al-Bursh gently gave his son spoonfuls of beans as he lay still in the hospital bed, a brace on his neck.
“Everything is expensive,” Sobhi Al-Bursh said, gritting with pain that he says is constant. He said he limits what he eats to help save his father money.
He believes that his body needs meat to heal. “It has been three months, and nothing heals,” he said.
 


Trump hails US-Israeli hostage release as ‘monumental news’

Updated 12 May 2025
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Trump hails US-Israeli hostage release as ‘monumental news’

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump on Sunday celebrated an announcement by Hamas that it would release US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander from Gaza, with the US president saying he hoped all hostages would be released and fighting ended.
“I am grateful to all those involved in making this monumental news happen,” Trump said in a post on social media, describing the release as a “good faith gesture,” adding: “Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict.”
 

 


Israel attacks Yemen’s Hodeidah after evacuation warnings, Houthis say

A charred tank truck stands at an oil storage facility after Israeli strikes in Yemen’s Houthi-held port city of Hodeidah.
Updated 11 May 2025
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Israel attacks Yemen’s Hodeidah after evacuation warnings, Houthis say

  • Strikes came shortly after Israel warned residents of Ras Isa, Hodeidah and Salif to leave, saying the ports were being used by the Iranian-backed Houthis

HODEIDAH: Israel attacked Hodeidah in Yemen after the Israeli army said it had warned residents of three ports under Houthi control to evacuate, the Houthi interior ministry said on Sunday.
The strikes came shortly after Israel warned residents of Ras Isa, Hodeidah and Salif to leave, saying the ports were being used by the Iranian-backed Houthis.
There was no immediate comment on the attack from Israel.
The strikes came a few days after a missile launched toward Israel by the Houthis was intercepted.
The attack came ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East this week.
Trump, who had launched an intensified military campaign against Houthi strongholds in Yemen on March 15, agreed to an Oman-mediated ceasefire deal with the group, who said the accord did not include Israel.
The Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at Israel as well as attacking vessels in global shipping lanes, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has carried out numerous retaliatory airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.