Jordan's King Abdullah says Gaza aid must be doubled to stem crisis

FILE PHOTO: Jordan’s King Abdullah II arrives for a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron (not seen) at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, February 16, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File photo

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) -Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Tuesday that humanitarian aid to Gaza must be doubled to prevent a deterioration in a hunger crisis affecting over 2 million people.

The monarch was quoted by state media as telling visiting USAID chief Samantha Power that the international community had to put more pressure on Israel to ease restrictions on the flow of food into the territory.

Jordan is urging its Western allies to lobby Israel to increase aid coming from the kingdom via Kerem Shalom on the border of Egypt, Israel and Gaza, beyond the existing Rafah crossing, officials say.

The flow of aid entering Gaza from Egypt has declined dramatically in the past few weeks, but Israel has said it is not blocking aid and blames the U.N. and the Palestinian side for any delays.

Separately, the king arrived at a military air base to oversee the departure of seven C-130 military transport aircraft, three from Jordan and the rest from Egypt, Qatar, France and the UAE, to air drop food parcels along the Gaza coast for a second day.

A diplomat, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the monarch was on board one of the Jordanian planes in the second such mission he personally joined this month.

There was no immediate comment from the king’s palace.

The waterproof parcels of ready-made meals were parachuted over several locations along the coast where hundreds of desperate people rushed to collect them.

Jordan, which the U.N. and Western donors have turned into a regional hub for humanitarian supplies to Gaza, on Monday for the first time carried out four flights, along with the French army, to drop food to thousands of displaced people sheltering on the beach.

Previous air drops that parachuted in medicines and humanitarian provisions were sent to hospitals that the Jordanian army runs in Gaza.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Additional reporting by Jehad Abu Shalbak Editing by Kevin Liffey, Bernadette Baum and Tomasz Janowski)