LONDON: Jordan’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs has issued a scathing condemnation of Israel’s military actions in northern Gaza, calling the ongoing offensive “inhumane” and a “war crime.”
Ayman Safadi took to his official X account on Sunday evening to denounce the Israeli government’s actions and urge immediate international intervention.
“The horror Israel is bringing on the entire population of northern Gaza is inhumane,” he wrote, adding that the offensive was “pure evil and a war crime that humanity should not tolerate.”
Safadi’s remarks came as the death toll in Gaza continued to rise.
Since the Israeli military launched its large-scale offensive following a Hamas attack in early October last year, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to health officials in the enclave.
The retaliatory strikes have leveled entire neighborhoods and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians. Hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed, struggling to treat the injured amid widespread shortages of medical supplies, food, and water.
“It is a massacre that should be faced with decisive international action to stop it immediately, including through imposing an arms embargo and effective sanctions,” Safadi continued in his statement.
The foreign minister accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians, saying: “Israel is starving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, bombing entire neighborhoods out of existence, burning displaced children in tents, and destroying hospitals.”
He also claimed that Israel was “brutally terrorizing the whole population to push them out of their homeland.”
International calls for a ceasefire have grown as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has worsened, but efforts at the UN Security Council to broker a truce have stalled amid geopolitical divisions.
Safadi criticized the international community’s response, saying: “Failure to stop this massacre is a shame on the whole international community. The Israeli government is continuing with its inhumane war crimes because the world is allowing it to. The impunity must end.”
He further urged the Security Council to take concrete steps to prevent further loss of life.
“Israeli occupation forces should not be allowed to burn any more Palestinian children alive, should not be allowed to commit any more murders, and destroy any more schools or hospitals,” he said.
Safadi called for the immediate protection of civilians and the implementation of international law.
He said: “There is no justification for the failure by the international community and its institutions to protect the innocent, stop the ethnic cleansing, implement international law, and ensure justice.”
