Israeli foreign minister renews calls for building border wall with Jordan

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz reiterated his call on Monday for expediting the construction of a wall along the border with Jordan.

In a statement, Katz said the wall “must be expedited to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Jordan into Israel, which threatens both the Jordanian regime and the State of Israel.”

He claimed that Iran is cooperating with Hamas members in Lebanon “to smuggle weapons and funds into Jordan with the aim of destabilizing the regime.”

There was no immediate comment from Jordan on the Israeli minister’s claim.

Katz called on Wednesday for evacuating the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and “handling it similarly” to the Gaza Strip.

He added during a closed-door meeting that building a barrier with Jordan will help stop what he called smuggling through the eastern border.

His call came amid rising tensions across the West Bank due to Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed nearly 40,000 people, mostly women and children, since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

At least 620 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land "illegal" and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul