Arab leaders reject US position, demand ceasefire in Gaza

The Arab leaders have rejected the United States (US) position on Israel attacks and demanded a ceasefire in Gaza.

They urged an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, pressing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to convince Israel, but the top U.S. diplomat said such a halt right now would only allow Hamas to regroup and attack Israel again.

In a rare public disagreement at a news conference in Amman, foreign ministers of Jordan and Egypt, standing alongside Blinken, repeatedly pushed for a cessation of hostilities, saying the death of thousands of civilians could not be justified as self-defense.

Both the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers made it clear that the US position isn’t acceptable to the Arab nations that were in Amman.

They also refused to discuss in-depth what comes next for Gaza, when and if Hamas is eradicated, saying the immediate focus should be on the effort to establish a cessation of hostilities. Blinken is on his second trip to the region since the situation in Gaza escalated on October 7.

It is pertinent to mention here that an Israeli air strike on an ambulance being used to evacuate the wounded from besieged northern Gaza killed 15 people and injured 60 others on Friday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said one of its ambulances was struck “by a missile fired by the Israeli forces” just feet from the entrance to the hospital in Gaza City, in an attack it says killed 15 people and wounded more than 60 others.

Video shared on social media, showed people lying in blood next to an ambulance with flashing lights on a city street as people rushed to help.