Israel to name Jordan envoy after settling spat

Security forces stand guard outside the Israeli embassy in the residential Rabiyeh neighborhood of the Jordanian capital Amman following an ‘incident’ on July 23, 2017. A Jordanian was killed and an Israeli seriously wounded at the Jewish state’s embassy in Amman. (AFP)
Updated 19 January 2018
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Israel to name Jordan envoy after settling spat

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will soon decide on Israel’s new ambassador to Jordan a day after the two countries agreed to put a monthslong diplomatic spat behind them.
Israel media reported Netanyahu as saying Israel had expressed remorse over a shooting at its Amman embassy last summer that killed two Jordanians.
Israel’s ambassador returned to Israel along with the guard involved in the shooting. The guard claimed self-defense and received a hero’s welcome at home, angering Jordanians.
The incident ruptured relations between the countries which signed a peace agreement in 1994 and cooperate on security and other issues.
Haaretz quoted Netanyahu saying Israel has “a strong interest in this relationship.”
The report adds he says Israel will compensate the Jordanian government but not the families of the deceased.


Dozen people entered Egypt from Gaza on first day of Rafah opening: source

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Dozen people entered Egypt from Gaza on first day of Rafah opening: source

RAFAH: A handful of injured Palestinians and their companions entered Egypt from Gaza on Monday, the first day of a limited reopening of the Rafah border crossing, a source on the Egyptian side of the border told AFP.
“Five injured people and seven companions” crossed the border, the source said on Tuesday.
The reopening, demanded by the United Nations and aid groups, is a key part of the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s truce plan for Gaza, where humanitarian conditions remain dire after two years of war.
The number of patients allowed to enter Egypt through the crossing was limited to 50 on Monday, each accompanied by two companions, according to three officials at the Egyptian border.
An Egyptian health official told AFP on Monday that three ambulances had arrived with Palestinian patients who were screened upon arrival to determine which hospital to be taken to.
AlQahera News, citing Egypt’s health ministry, reported that 150 hospitals and 300 ambulances had been prepared to receive Palestinian patients.
It said 12,000 doctors and 30 rapid deployment teams had been allocated to work with those transferred.
The director of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, said there were 20,000 patients in the territory in urgent need of treatment, including 4,500 children.
There was no official announcement of the number of people who returned to Gaza via the crossing.
AFP images on Monday showed empty buses crossing back to Egypt after transporting Palestinians to Gaza earlier in the day.
The partial resumption of operations at the crossing comes after Israeli forces seized control of the gateway to Egypt in May 2024 during the war with Hamas.
Gaza’s civil defense reported dozens killed in a wave of Israeli strikes over the weekend, in what the military said was retaliation for Palestinian fighters exiting a tunnel in Rafah city.
Ali Shaath, the head of a Palestinian technocratic committee established to oversee the day-to-day governance of Gaza, said Rafah’s reopening offered a “window of hope” for the territory.