Jordan announced on Tuesday the arrest of 16 individuals with alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, accusing them of receiving training and funding in Lebanon as part of a plot to carry out attacks using rockets and drones.
The detainees are accused of “manufacturing missiles using local tools and others imported from abroad for illegal purposes, possessing explosives and firearms, concealing a missile ready for use, a project to manufacture drones, in addition to recruiting and training individuals inside the kingdom and subjecting them to training abroad,” the news site Araby21 quoted Jordan’s General Intelligence Department as saying.
The news site also reported Tuesday that authorities had arrested Khaled El Juhani, director of the parliamentary bloc of the Islamic Action Front, a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated political party. Reports in Arabic-language media did not immediately say whether he was one of the 16 detainees.
The quotes from the General Intelligence Department statement did not say where the attacks were planned to be carried out. It did not mention Israel.
At least one rocket was primed for launch, Reuters quoted Jordanian officials as saying. The plot had been under close surveillance since 2021, Reuters reported.
A security official said the suspects were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Jordan’s largest opposition group, and that the cell leader responsible for training some members was operating from Lebanon.
Jordan, home to a majority Palestinian population, has historically maintained a fragile peace with Israel despite deep undercurrents of anti-Israel sentiment. The Hashemite monarchy, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, has long relied on its alliance with Bedouin tribes to maintain power, even as tensions with the predominantly Palestinian public have simmered beneath the surface. While Jordan has not been a direct military threat to Israel since 1967, recent unrest has drawn renewed attention to the country’s internal instability.
The September 2024 elections marked a dramatic shift, with the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islamic Action Front tripling its support to become the largest party in parliament. The surge was widely seen as a reflection of growing Islamist influence and rising solidarity with Hamas amid Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Analysts warned that the IAF’s success revealed both a tribal rift within the kingdom and the potential for radical groups to exploit the country’s fractured social fabric.
This political shift has coincided with incidents of violence and growing anti-Israel rhetoric from both elected officials and protesters. In one high-profile case, the IAF leader publicly praised a Jordanian who killed three Israelis at a border crossing, calling him a hero.
King Abdullah, though generally cautious and pragmatic, has also sharply criticized Israel, accusing it of “war crimes” in Gaza. Meanwhile, fiery protests in Amman and attempts to storm the Israeli embassy underscore the volatile public mood.
