Jordan vows to pressure for more aid to Gaza, after sending 36-truck convoy

Jordan announced on Thursday that it will continue to apply pressure to allow more aid into Gaza, as humanitarian organisations raise the alarm over growing starvation in the besieged enclave.

A convoy of aid from the Jordan Hashmite Charity Organisation (JHCO) departed from Amman, government spokesman Mohammed Momani said.

In a statement to the Jordanian Roya news site, Momani said that despite the obstacles and challenges, Jordan is "proud to be among the first to initiate aid and send it".

"Israeli obstacles remain the primary impediment to aid reaching Gaza," he added, saying that the charity will use "all tools" to pressure for more aid.

He highlighted that the aid currently trickling into the war-battered Strip is only "a small fraction of what is needed," highlighting the importance of allowing in vital resources.

Momani further said that the Jordanian government will pursue legal action against any party that chooses to "exploit the issue of Jordanian aid to Gaza, to malign the country and its consistent positions".

Jordan has previously been criticised for taking sick children from Gaza for treatment but then returning them to the besieged and devastated enclave.

The aid convoy sent from Jordan on Thursday was in collaboration with the World Central Kitchen and the World Food Programme.

According to reports, the 50-truck convoy contains essential food products, including flour, grains, oil, and baby formula.

In the last 10 days, five convoys have been sent into Gaza, made up of 147 trucks.

The JHCO said the latest aid convoy was sent through the Zikim border crossing.

The Jordanian News Agency said that efforts to deliver aid have faced long delays at the Israeli border, and that live ammunition is used against desperate civilians approaching crossings to receive the aid.

Jordan’s representative to the UN Security Council, Sultan Qaisi, reiterated on Wednesday that the kingdom is ready to send hundreds more aid trucks into Gaza, but are waiting for Israel to remove the "illegal restrictions".

He said the aid that had entered Gaza so far was a "mere drop in the ocean," compared to the urgent needs on the ground.

Qaisi went on to demand that Israel comply with international law and the Geneva Convention of 1949.

The UN on Thursday said that 6,000 aid trucks are waiting to enter Gaza, while the "hunger crisis in Gaza has never been so dire".

Over 100 different aid organisations said that Israel’s siege is causing mass starvation, noting that over 100 people have died from malnutrition in the enclave.

The UN also said this week that Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food, since the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took control of operations in May.