Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy (AP Photo/Melissa Majchrzak)
UN medical officials estimate that over 25,000 Gazans require treatment abroad, including approximately 980 children with cancer.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken aim at Jordan for its failure to honor a commitment to evacuate 2,000 sick children from Gaza.
UN medical officials estimate that over 25,000 Gazans require treatment abroad, including approximately 980 children with cancer.
.A quarter of these cancer patients need “urgent and immediate evacuation” as Gaza’s healthcare system has collapsed under the weight of Hamas using hospitals as human shields, forcing many of them to close.
A brief window opened in February when the ceasefire allowed medical evacuees to leave Gaza through the Rafah border. Jordan pledged to accept thousands of sick children from Gaza.
Dubbed the “Jordanian Medical Corridor – Gaza,” the initiative was announced with considerable fanfare and was meant to be implemented in partnership with the World Health Organization.
During a visit to the White House at the time, Jordan’s King Abdullah expressed enthusiasm for the project, saying he believed Trump is “very happy that we do this thing with 2,000 children as quickly as possible.”
Unsurprisingly, Jordan failed to live up to its promise.
“They took 44, and then they’ve cut us off,” Kennedy tells Politico Magazine. “I would encourage him to put the welfare of these children first and put the politics aside. These kids are very, very fragile.”
“It was very opaque because there were so many different institutions involved,” Kennedy explained, adding that Egypt had initially appeared willing to accept children but then also “cut it off.”
According to Kennedy, his involvement in the evacuation effort began even before his confirmation as HHS Secretary. He initially discussed the matter with Ron Dermer, a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Despite the dissolution of USAID under Elon Musk at the beginning of the Trump administration, Kennedy maintains this did not hamper progress. He approached President Trump shortly after the inauguration in January to see what could be done.
“I went to the president very early on, after the inauguration, and he said that he wanted to get involved and wanted to get the kids out,” Kennedy recalled.
Trump, in turn, connected Kennedy with developer Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in Middle East peace negotiations.
Kennedy also engaged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to brief on Jordan’s lack of progress and ensure that USAID personnel involved in the evacuation effort would not be terminated.
As per this report, the Kingdom has not issued a response to the allegations.
Proposed coalition would also need Shas support, despite its endorsement of Netanyahu.
The agency last estimated Iran held over 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% purity.
59% of Democratic voters said they want 'someone else' to lead Senate Democrats versus 22%…
Yisrael Ganz, who chairs the Yesha Council umbrella group, thanked the Binyamin Regional Council’s security…
Before Oct. 7, Israeli tech company MIA Dynamics built civilian electric four-wheelers, then transformed its…
According to a report released last month by the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), new…