By Al-Fassel and AFP | 2023-11-06

Jordan's air force has air-dropped vital medical supplies to a field hospital in Gaza, King Abdullah said early Monday (November 6).

"Our fearless air force personnel air-dropped at midnight urgent medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in Gaza," the king said on X, formerly Twitter.

"This is our duty to aid our brothers and sisters injured in the war on Gaza," he said, adding: "We will always be there for our Palestinian brethren."

The Israeli army said Monday it had "coordinated" the air-drop with Jordan.

"Overnight, in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a Jordanian airplane dropped medical equipment and food to the Jordanian Hospital in the Gaza strip," the Israeli army said in a statement.

"The equipment will be used by the medical staff for patients."

The announcement came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken carried out a regional diplomatic tour, holding talks in Amman on Saturday with counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Blinken on Saturday reaffirmed US support for "humanitarian pauses" in fighting between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas to ensure people in the besieged Gaza strip get help.

Speaking at a news conference in Amman about sparing civilians and speeding up aid deliveries, Blinken said: "The United States believes that all of these efforts will be facilitated by humanitarian pauses."

"We believe humanitarian pauses can be critical mechanisms to protect civilians, to getting aid in, to getting foreign nationals out while still enabling Israel to achieve its objectives to defeat Hamas," he said.

Maritime aid corridor

Blinken visited the West Bank, Iraq and Cyprus on Sunday as he continued his whirlwind trip, which has focused on aid for civilians in Gaza, meeting with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides to discuss a maritime aid corridor.

Their conversation at Larnaca airport included "a dedicated, one-way maritime corridor of sustained flow of humanitarian aid from Cyprus to civilians in Gaza," government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said.

Earlier Sunday, Christodoulides said France, the European Commission and Israel backed Nicosia's initiative to open a humanitarian sea route.

"On that basis, we are talking with the United Nations (UN) because the UN will receive the aid and not Hamas so that it reaches the population," he said.

After raising the plan with European Union leaders last month, Christodoulides said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron about the issue.

"The Republic of Cyprus is trying, within its capabilities, to ensure that humanitarian aid to Gaza is uninterrupted," said Christodoulides.

He said Cyprus was taking the initiative as the nearest EU member state to the region -- the island is about 370km from Gaza -- and because of its good relations with Arab states and Israel.

"It is important that both the French president and the president of the (European) Commission have endorsed our initiative. We are working on the details so that it can be implemented," Christodoulides said.

He said "we must be ready at any moment, and as soon as conditions allow it, to proceed with implementing this proposal."

Asked whether there were discussions with Israel on a ceasefire to provide humanitarian aid, he said: "Israel, the prime minister himself, is in favor of our initiative."

"We are discussing the details... because the maritime area around Gaza does not allow for ships to approach."

Last week, Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos visited Jordan and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in the West Bank. Christodoulides also has involved Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in the talks.

Cyprus already serves as a transit hub for foreign nationals evacuated from Israel because of the war.

US support for 'humanitarian pauses'

"We cannot allow this war to undermine all that has been done to bring about a just peace to the region," Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said at the Saturday news conference in Amman.

He called for all sides to work together to "stop a catastrophe that will haunt the region for generations."

During a later meeting with Blinken, King Abdullah "stressed the need to stop the war on Gaza and to impose a humanitarian truce to sustain aid delivery to the Gaza strip," a royal court statement said.

"The only way to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is to work towards a political horizon to achieve a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution," he said, with a Palestinian state coexisting alongside Israel.

In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab state to make peace with Israel after Egypt in 1979. Its population includes more than two million Palestinian refugees.