Jordan announced on Friday that it will host an emergency international conference on the urgent humanitarian response to the crisis in the Gaza Strip as the war, now in its seventh month, rages on.
The conference will be held June 11 at the King Hussein bin Talal Convention Center near the Dead Sea and will be co-hosted with Egypt and the United Nations, the Royal Court said in a statement.
The meeting, according to the Royal Court, aims “to identify ways to bolster the international community’s response to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip,” and seeks “commitment for a collective coordinated response to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
Since the war in Gaza erupted Oct. 7, 2023, Jordan has repeatedly condemned Israel’s offensive and called for an immediate cease-fire in the enclave.
The Israeli army launched its air and ground campaign in Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’ unprecedented cross-border assault on southern Israel. During their attack, Hamas militants killed nearly 1,200 people and took over 240 others hostages.
Meanwhile, the war in Gaza killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to data from the Health Ministry in the territory. The UN says an estimated 1.7 million people were forced into displacement, with the majority crammed in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where Israel has stepped up its offensive in recent weeks.
The fighting in Rafah has also displaced about one million people, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a Friday report. Additionally, aid deliveries to Gaza have declined by 67% since the closure of the Rafah border crossing on May 7 following the Israeli military takeover, according to another report by OCHA released Wednesday. The crossing with Egypt had been one of the main routes for the delivery of life-saving assistance into Gaza since the early days of the war.
