Jordan FM denies banning citizen freed by Israel from returning to kingdom

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has categorically denied reports that a Jordanian citizen released by Israel as part of a prisoner swap deal with Hamas has been banned from returning to the kingdom.

In a statement issued yesterday, Safadi said his country was not part of the prisoner swap talks, however, he stressed the kingdom’s support for the deal and the need to fully implement it.

Earlier on Saturday, the National Committee for Jordanian Prisoners and Missing Persons in Israeli Occupation’s Prisons said it was surprised by the Red Cross’s notification that Jordanian detainees in Israeli jails, Ammar Huwaitat and Thaer Al-Lawzi, would be deported as part of the deal.

It explained that Huwaitat had refused to be deported and demanded to be released to Jordan and remained in captivity, while Al-Lawzi was deported to Gaza.

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The committee thanked the Palestinian resistance in Gaza for “including Jordanian prisoners in the prisoner swap talks”, adding: “We reject deporting any Jordanian citizen, and demand the Jordanian Foreign Ministry make efforts to return Jordanian prisoners to their homeland.”

Israel is holding 20 Jordanian citizens who had been severely abused alongside Palestinians prisoners.

Seventy Palestinian prisoners who were released on Saturday as part of the deal were deported to Egypt en-route to other host countries.

Another 114 freed Palestinian prisoners arrived in the city of Ramallah in the central West Bank, while 16 others arrived in the Gaza Strip.

The 200 Palestinian prisoners were released on Saturday in return for four Israeli female soldiers.

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