Jordan arrests 16 people with Hamas connections for plotting to destabilize kingdom

The individuals connected to Hamas were found to have been manufacturing missiles with materials obtained from abroad and possessing explosives.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Jordanian authorities announced on Tuesday that they arrested 16 people with Hamas connections for smuggling weapons and attempting to destabilize the kingdom.

The officials said the suspects were “undermining national security and creating chaos within the country.”

The individuals connected to Hamas were found to have been manufacturing missiles with materials obtained from abroad and possessing explosives.

The suspects were surveilled since 2021 because they were believed to have been producing missiles, conspiring to destabilize Jordan and training terrorist operatives.

In addition, those detained were suspected of organizing street protests in Jordan and attempting to radicalize the substantial Palestinian population.

The Jordanian authorities also arrested Khaled al-Johani, director of the office of the Islamic Action Front.

Israel has repeatedly warned of increased trafficking of weapons by Iran and its operatives through Jordan as well as activities to destabilize the kingdom, which borders Israel.

In addition to weapons, there is concern that funds have been smuggled through Jordan to fund terrorist groups in Judea and Samaria.

Israel will start building the long-discussed security fence along its border with Jordan. The project, expected to last three years, will cost NIS 5.2 billion ($1.4 billion).

Calls to build a secure border fence were a reaction to the increase in drug and gun smuggling, which is blamed for the sharp rise in violent incidents within Israel’s Arab community and acts of terrorism against Israelis.

The border, stretching from Hamat Gader at the southern edge of the Golan Heights to Ramon International Airport, north of Eilat, includes a 30-kilometer (18-mile) section upgraded similarly to Israel’s border barriers with Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the 2010s.

Israel will try to construct the fence as close as possible to the Jordanian border; the currently standing fence leaves a 170-square-kilometer gap.

The new fence is expected to be stronger and more sophisticated than the current chain-link fence, which has sensors in some places and only barbed wire in others.