Jordan’s Queen Rania makes impassioned plea for Gaza ceasefire at Qatar Web Summit

Jordan’s Queen Rania called for a ceasefire in Gaza at the inaugural Web Summit Qatar in Doha on Wednesday, as her husband, King Abdullah, airdropped aid over the besieged Palestinian enclave.

Queen Rania highlighted the role of social media in publicising the horrific effects of Israel's war on Gaza and said explained it has helped amplify Palestinian voices.

It comes amid reports of mass starvation and hunger in northern Gaza.

"The people of Gaza have never been more connected – yet never more isolated. Cut off from food, water, medicine, fuel, and everything required to sustain human life, they have continued to reach for their phones… to reach for us, " she said. 

"This new generation of citizen journalists is being credited with ‘humanizing’ the people of Gaza," Queen Rania said. "The tragedy is Palestinians have been human all along – it had just been simpler to believe otherwise." 

Queen Rania again called for "a cease to the destruction… A cease to the displacement… A cease to the deprivation by design" with 30,000 Israelis now being killed in the five-month Israeli offensive.

She said critical steps must be taken to prevent the death toll from rising more rapidly, including access to urgently-needed humanitarian aid as people resort of eating animal and bird feed. 

"The people of Gaza have never been more connected – yet never more isolated," she said.

"Cut off from food, water, medicine, fuel, and everything required to sustain human life, they have continued to reach for their phones… to reach for us.

Countries such as Jordan have airdropped aid on Gaza in a desperate bid to ensure at least some Palestinians have access to food.

King Abdullah  boarded a Jordanian military plane to take part in a joint operation coordinated with several countries' air forces to drop tons of food parcels along the Gaza coast.

Three Jordanian C-130 military transport aircraft joined four other planes from Egypt, Qatar, France and the UAE, in the biggest airdrop operation so far to Gaza, the army said.

Aid agencies say this is nowhere near enough to meet the needs of Gaza's besieged population.

Previous air drops that parachuted in medicines and humanitarian provisions were sent to hospitals that the Jordanian army runs in Gaza.

Queen Rania of Jordan took centre stage at the Web Summit Qatar in Doha yesterday, bringing attention to the critical situation in Palestine and criticising the global response to Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza. In her address, she illuminated the "glaring double standard" in… pic.twitter.com/cjMbPQz4L1

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) February 28, 2024

UN humanitarian agency OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said on Tuesday that Israeli forces are "systematically" blocking access to people in Gaza, complicating the task of delivering aid in what has become a lawless war zone.

All planned aid convoys into the north have been denied by Israeli authorities in recent weeks, the last allowed on 23 January, according to the World Health Organization.

Even convoys cleared in advance with Israeli authorities have been blocked or come under fire.

Early Thursday, over 100 people were massacred in an Israeli attack on a north Gaza aid queue.

Multiple agencies also contributed to this report.