Parliamentary delegation in Gaza on solidarity visit

AMMAN — A parliamentary delegation arrived in Gaza on Tuesday on an official visit to express solidarity with residents of the besieged coastal enclave, a lawmaker said Tuesday. 

Deputy Khalil Atiyeh said the delegation comprises the 12 members of the Lower House Palestine Committee and includes his brother, MP Khamis Atiyeh.

“The delegation entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing on an official visit which was organised through the Jordanian embassy in Cairo,” the deputy told The Jordan Times. 

The delegation members are deputies Yihya Saud, head of the Lower House Palestine Committee, Amneh Gharaghir, Zakariya Sheikh, Samir Orabi, Krayem Awadat, Mustafa Yaghi, Mohammad Hdeib, Qusai Dmeisi, Mohammad Hjouj, Mohammad Thahrawi and Rula Hroub, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

“The delegates will congratulate Gazans on the victory they recently achieved after the Israeli war on the strip,” he said. 

Following the 51-day Israeli aggression on Gaza, which started on July 6 and ended on August 26 when the Palestinians and Israelis agreed on a ceasefire, many Jordanian individuals, institutions and private sector companies donated millions of dinars in support of Gazans.

More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed by the Israeli bombardment, most of them women and children. 

In addition, more than half a million of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents were displaced when their homes were destroyed.

An estimated $2 billion are needed to rebuild the enclave's shattered infrastructure.

The delegates will also visit the Jordan field hospital to check on services provided to Gazans.

Jordan dispatched a field hospital to Gaza following the Israeli war on the enclave in late 2008 and early 2009. By April this year, the medical cadres had treated over 1.2 million Gazans.