The Jordanian Air Force dropped medical supplies on the Gaza Strip, King Abdullah II of Jordan said on Monday.
King Abdullah wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter:
Our fearless air force personnel air-dropped at midnight urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza. This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza. We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren.
The Gaza Strip has been under complete siege for almost a month now, since Hamas militants carried out unprecedented terrorist attacks on Israeli population centres, taking hundreds of hostages. As part of the blockade, Israel has completely cut off the supply of drinking water, food, electricity and fuel. The only humanitarian aid that has been allowed into Gaza is a few dozen lorries carrying international aid that were allowed through Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt.
According to The Times of Israel, it is unclear whether the aid shipments reached the hospital and whether the operation was carried out with Israel’s knowledge or approval. The Jordanian king’s message included photos of a crate draped with the Jordanian national flag being loaded onto an air force transport plane. Other X users reacted to King Abdullah’s post, saying the claim was untrue and that the aid was delivered to an airfield in Egypt.
Israel is demanding that all aid shipments, which have so far only entered the southern Gaza Strip through the Egyptian Rafah border crossing, be screened. The Israeli army says this is to prevent arms smuggling to the Islamist Hamas movement, which rules Gaza and carried out an unprecedented large-scale attack on Israel on 7 October. Aid organisations argue that the goods that are still entering the Gaza Strip by truck through the Rafah crossing from Egypt are insufficient.
The number of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip has risen to 9,770, the health ministry in the blockaded enclave said on Sunday.
Last week, Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel and asked the Israeli ambassador not to visit the country to protest the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, saying the attacks have killed innocent people and caused a humanitarian catastrophe.
