The King of Jordan announced his country will not be accepting any Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip along with Egypt in a press conference Tuesday.
“On the issue of refugees coming to Jordan, and I think I can quite strongly speak on behalf not only of Jordon as a nation, but of our friends in Egypt,” King Abdullah II stated. “That is a red line, because I think that is the plan by certain of the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground.”
“No refugees in Jordan, no refugees in Egypt,” he stated.
He made the remarks after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, Fox News reports.
Despite the IDF’s warnings for civilians to evacuate the Gaza Strip and head South of the Gaza River prior to retaliatory airstrikes, Hamas instructed civilians to stay put, saying that the humanitarian efforts of Israel were “psychological warfare.” The IDF sent a message to the UN to warn Gazans as well.
Hamas reportedly keeps terror cells hidden under Gaza homes as well as underground tunnels.
It is now expected that the IDF will soon launch widespread ground counteroffensives on the Gaza Strip, effectively pushing evacuating civilians south towards Jordan and Egypt.
"This is a situation that has to be handled within Gaza and the West Bank," Abdullah said. "And you don’t have to carry this out on the shoulders of others."
"The whole region is on the brink," he concluded. "This new cycle of violence is leading us towards the abyss."
