Neither Jordan nor Egypt will accept any Palestinian refugees and any attempt to force them to do so will be a “red line” for the neighboring nations, Jordan’s King Abdullah II has warned.
At a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Tuesday, the Jordanian head of state insisted that the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Palestine’s Gaza Strip must be handled within the confines of the Palestinian territories and cannot be allowed to overflow into the wider Middle East.
“That is a red line,” King Abdullah II told journalists, “I think that is the plan by certain of the usual suspects to try and create issues on the ground.”
“There will be no refugees in Jordan and no refugees in Egypt,” he reiterated.
The Gaza Strip, which is the Palestinian territory currently under siege by Israel in response to the terror attack conducted by Hamas on Oct. 7, borders Egypt to the south, while Palestine’s other major territory in the West Bank borders Jordan.
It is understood that Jordan has expressed concerns that a displacement of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip into Egypt could set a precedent for an influx of refugees at a later date from the West Bank into the Middle Eastern nation.
The Egyptian government closed off the Rafah crossing, its only land corridor with Gaza following the terror attack on Israel earlier this month, effectively creating an open-air prison for Palestinian civilians located in the region.
Israel also informed Egypt that any attempts to provide humanitarian relief to Palestine — by providing supplies through humanitarian convoys, for example — would be bombed by Israeli Defense Forces.
Gaza is preparing for further retaliatory air strikes by Israel for the atrocities committed by Hamas, which saw more than 1,300 Israeli civilians, including women and children, slaughtered in cold blood.
Israel ordered an evacuation of all residents in the north of Gaza last week, leading to the mass displacement of around 600,000 people.
It is understood that the Israeli military is preparing for a ground invasion of the territory.
