Amman, May 8 (Petra) – The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) has expressed its profound astonishment and vehement rejection of a London-based website's publication of misleading materials, laden with falsehoods and defamatory claims, targeting Jordan's extensive humanitarian and relief endeavors undertaken since late 2023 to support our brethren in the Gaza Strip.

The JHCO's Media Office stated today that the news website, which publishes in English, demanded at the close of business on Thursday that the JHCO respond to a series of leading, biased, and overtly accusatory questions, purportedly based on what it termed "allegations" requiring a rebuttal.

The statement elaborated that the website demanded answers within a mere three hours, a timeframe strongly suggesting a premeditated intention to publish its material without any JHCO response, thereby aiming to tarnish Jordan's image and malign its crucial role.

The website's perfunctory request for comment appeared to be a mere tactic to feign neutrality, integrity, and objectivity, despite its operators knowing full well that such sweeping and accusatory questions regarding a multifaceted relief operation require considerable time for a thorough, accurate, and transparent response, rather than permitting the isolation of specific actions to mislead readers with false narratives.

The Media Office stressed that all donations received by the JHCO reached the people of Gaza in their entirety, with not a single penny deducted for any kind of costs or wages.

Regarding financial costs, the Media Office clarified that Jordan initially shouldered the full financial burden for land convoys, airdrops, the air bridge, and aircraft dispatched via Al-Arish, long before numerous countries and organizations requested to participate in these relief efforts.

Concerning airdrop costs, the Media Office noted that Jordan bore the entirety of the financial costs for its exclusively Jordanian-funded airdrops, numbering 125. In contrast, brotherly and friendly nations covered the costs for the 266 airdrops in which they requested participation. These figures, specifying participating nations, were publicly announced after each airdrop operation.

The JHCO Media Office emphatically stated that the costs of airdrop operations significantly exceeded the figures maliciously reported by the news website. A single free-fall airdrop costs approximately $210,000, while a GPS-guided airdrop amounts to $450,000.

These details, the Office noted, are meticulously documented with the countries and international organizations that participated.

The website's mendacious assertion that Jordan was profiteering from these operations is a shameful and reprehensible fabrication. Such a claim is unconscionable, and the published report is utterly devoid of integrity and credibility, betraying a fundamental lack of due diligence and professionalism by the website that disseminated these falsehoods.

Regarding the air bridge (which supplemented free-fall airdrops), 102 aircraft transported relief materials, with Jordan bearing these costs. Italy also contributed 11 aircraft from its armed forces.

The total weight of materials transported via this air bridge reached approximately 122 tons, with financial costs being lower than those for airdrops.

As for land convoys, Jordan bore the full expense for all convoys it dispatched, particularly during the initial months of the war on Gaza. Subsequently, numerous countries and international organizations joined these efforts, requesting to participate and covering their respective contributions.

These operations were conducted under transparent international standards, subject to rigorous and clear monitoring, with documented proof of delivery. The cost per truck amounted to $2,200, covering only insurance, operational, maintenance, and fuel allowances.

The Media Office revealed that the direct costs borne by Jordan to support our brethren in Gaza amount to tens of millions of dollars, while indirect costs to the Jordanian state reach hundreds of millions.

In light of these colossal figures and the immense tragedy afflicting our brethren, it is utterly shameful and a blatant lie to suggest, as the website did in its disgraceful report, that Jordan is profiteering by mere hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Media Office also highlighted the presence of two Jordanian field hospitals, a prosthetic limb clinic, and a mobile bakery within the Gaza Strip, in addition to a hospital in Nablus and two medical treatment stations in Ramallah and Jenin.

The JHCO Media Office affirmed its resolute intention to pursue legal action against the website for the baseless rumors, accusatory assertions, and misleading information it published. Furthermore, it will track and hold accountable all who circulated and amplified these falsehoods.

The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization firmly asserts that such reports cannot obscure the irrefutable facts that unequivocally point to Jordan's unwavering and principled historic and humanitarian stance a stance cherished by every Jordanian, Arab, and indeed every person of integrity.

This campaign of falsification and distortion, as perpetrated by the website, will neither be accepted nor met with silence. If this website was genuinely concerned for the people in Gaza, its priority should have been to highlight these extensive efforts and the sacrifices made by the Jordanian people for their brethren in Palestine, rather than launching despicable attempts to defame Jordan's image for malicious and deceptive ends.

//Petra// AA

09/05/2025 00:01:55