Israel was not invited to Tuesday’s Gaza aid conference in Jordan, an official in Jerusalem’s Foreign Ministry told reporters on Monday.
The conference on the humanitarian response to the Hamas war is being hosted by Jordan, Egypt and the United Nations at a venue on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea, a few miles from the Israeli border.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to attend the summit as part of his regional tour, which included previous stops in Egypt and Israel.
Other confirmed participants include U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas.
Representatives of Australia, Cyprus, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia and Pakistan are also expected to attend.
According to Jordan’s Royal Court, the summit 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.”
Jordan and Israel ended the state of war that existed since 1948 and established diplomatic ties in 1994. However, while the government in Amman maintains relations with Israel, the Jordanian public is deeply hostile, with a majority of the population being Palestinians.
On Nov. 1, Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel and told Jerusalem not to return its ambassador to Amman. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said that the move was a protest against the “raging Israeli war on Gaza, which is … causing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.”
