Jordan’s Queen Rania has condemned the ‘slow motion, mass murder’ of Gaza’s children, during the Israeli attacks on the besieged territory.
The royal spoke to CNN’s Chief International Correspondent, Christiane Amanpour from the King Abdullah II Air Base, where food and relief efforts are being prepared and dispatched to the people of Gaza via parachute airdrops.
Queen Rania, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, condemned Israel for obstructing humanitarian aid and called for an immediate end to the war, which has so far killed over 31,000 Palestinians.
‘This has been a slow motion, mass murder of children, five months in the making,’ Queen Rania said when talking about the widespread hunger in Gaza, which she describes as a ‘man-made, Israeli-made disaster’.
She added: ‘Children who were thriving and healthy just months ago are wasting away in front of their parents. It is absolutely shameful, outrageous and entirely predictable what’s happening in Gaza today, because it was deliberate.’
‘I would say that as devastating and as traumatic as October 7 was, it doesn’t give Israel license to commit atrocity after atrocity. Israel experienced one October 7. Since then, the Palestinians have experienced 156 October 7s
Jordan’s Queen Rania on CNN
Jordan began sending aid drops last year, with Queen Rania saying they could not ‘sit idle’ as people were hungry.
The Queen described them as ‘resorting to desperate measures in order to address a desperate situation’, but said this method of delivering aid will never meet the needs of Gaza’s population.
Referencing the Hamas attacks on Israel last year, she said: ‘I would say that as devastating and as traumatic as October 7 was, it doesn’t give Israel license to commit atrocity after atrocity. Israel experienced one October 7. Since then, the Palestinians have experienced 156 October 7s. They have been going through this every day.’
