Jordan asks US to deploy Patriot defense system amid Hamas-Israel war jitters
Jordanian army spokesman says ‘drones have become a threat on all our fronts,’ denies claims US bases in Jordan are being used to transport military equipment to Israel
Jordan has asked the United States to deploy its Patriot missile defense system to step up the kingdom’s border defenses as the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza causes jitters throughout the region.
“We asked the American side to help bolster our defense system with Patriot air defense missile systems,” Jordan’s army spokesperson told state TV, according to Reuters.
“The drones have become a threat on all our fronts,” Brigadier General Mustafa Hiyari said.
In his comments, Hiyari also denied social media reports that US military bases in Jordan are being used to transport military equipment and weapons from caches in the kingdom to Israel.
The report came as the Pentagon has been beefing up air defenses in the region to protect US forces. Israel has reportedly agreed to delay aspects of its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, aimed at destroying Hamas’s military and governance capabilities, until the systems are in place.
War erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw some 2,500 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from Gaza by land, air and sea, killing some 1,400 people and seizing some 230 hostages of all ages, under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities. The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — including babies, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists.
Earlier this month, the destroyer USS Carney shot down four land-attack cruise missiles launched from Yemen that the Pentagon has said were potentially headed toward Israel.
In response, the Pentagon announced it was sending multiple Patriot missile defense system battalions and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system to the Middle East, as well as repositioning the Eisenhower strike group to the US Central Command area of responsibility. The ship had previously been en route to the Eastern Mediterranean.
The shift means that the Navy will have a carrier strike group off the shore of Israel — the Ford carrier strike group — and another, the Eisenhower, potentially maneuvered to defend US forces and Israel from the Red Sea or the Gulf of Oman.
In related news, at least 5,000 people demonstrated in the Jordanian capital Amman Friday to demand that the kingdom’s peace treaty with Israel be annulled.
Jordan was the second Arab state to make peace with Israel in 1994, after Egypt in 1979.
AFP journalists said some protesters brandished pictures of US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron, alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the slogan: “Accomplices in crime.”
Similar protests took place in Zarqa, Mafraq, Tahila and Aqaba.
Hamas says over 8,000 people have been killed in the Strip as the IDF conducts massive strikes on terror targets and increasingly operates on the ground as well. The figures cannot be independently verified and the number of terror operatives killed is unknown.
The Times of Israel Community.