Jordan accuses Israel of Gaza ‘massacres,’ says policies ‘killing all prospects’ for regional peace

Jordan’s foreign minister says Israel’s policies in the war against Hamas in Gaza have caused “massacres and starvation” and that its wider actions are “killing all prospects” for peace in the Middle East.

Addressing Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov at a meeting in Moscow, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi says he hopes to discuss “efforts to end the aggression on Gaza, and the massacres and starvation that it is creating.”

This is in addition to the “illegal measures that continue to undermine the two-state solution and kill all prospects for peace in the region,” he adds.

“We value your clear position against the war and your demand for reaching a permanent ceasefire,” he tells Lavrov.

Israel denies its military targets civilians and says that there is no “policy of starvation” in Gaza.

The comments come after Jerusalem approved a plan to evacuate and conquer Gaza City, an urban area home to hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Strip. Most of the territory’s population has been displaced since the war began, many repeatedly, according to the United Nations.

Israel is also advancing the construction of settlement housing units in the sensitive E1 area, with the stated goal of thwarting the future creation of a Palestinian state.