Jordan's foreign minister calls situation in occupied West Bank 'extremely dangerous' amid Israeli offensive
Jordan's foreign minister warned Thursday that the collapse of a Gaza ceasefire deal will drag the whole Middle East region into “anxiety, uncertainty, and chaos.”
“As we talk about Gaza and the risk of the ceasefire not holding which is dragging not just Gaza into hell again but the whole region into anxiety, uncertainty and chaos that we have seen,” Ayman Safadi said during a session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The first six-week phase of a Gaza ceasefire agreement took effect on Jan. 19, suspending Israel's genocidal war that has killed nearly 47,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 111,400 since Oct. 7, 2023.
The three-phase ceasefire agreement includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
“We're going to see a bottom of pressure from the people of both sides to ensure that the ceasefire holds because you know we cannot forget the hell it has been last year for everybody,” Safadi said.
“But I think that it is in everyone's interest that the deal holds. I think we have an opportunity on which we can build and if it does not hold what is the alternative?”
The top Jordanian diplomat called the situation in the occupied West Bank “extremely dangerous.”
“As Gaza sort of witnesses a degree of end of fighting, we don't want see that fighting in the West Bank leading to explosion,” he said. “I think history has proven that security approach will not solve the problem.”
The Israeli army continued for the third day in a row on Thursday a deadly military offensive in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, killing at least 12 people and injuring 40 others.
Israeli media said the Jenin assault is part of a political maneuver by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appease far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the recent Gaza ceasefire. Reports suggest that Netanyahu promised the attack to prevent Smotrich from resigning, which could collapse the government.
“We need a political solution, we need a political vision we can all rally around it in a very pragmatic practical way that an anchored in an understanding that in order for the peace to hold to be real, all sides have to feel that they have gotten their legitimate rights fulfilled,” Safadi said.
In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
