Queen Rania of Jordan accused the international community of “glaring double standards” in their response to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
The Jordanian royal said her country was shocked by the violence the fundamentalist group unleashed against Israeli communities.
But she questioned the West for immediately offering their support to Israel while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues to pursue a campaign of heavy air raids on Gaza.
Queen Rania, who is herself of Palestinian descent, condemned the shelling and insisted a ceasefire is necessary as the death toll keeps growing.
She said: “I believe the people all around the Middle East, including in Jordan, are shocked and disappointed by the world’s reaction to this catastrophe that is unfolding.
“For the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen the glaring double standard.
“When October 7 happened, the world immediately and unequivocally stood by Israel and its right to defend itself and condemned the attack that happened … but what we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks, we’re seeing silence in the world.
“Countries have been expressing concerns or acknowledging the casualties but always with the preface of declarations of support for Israel.”
She told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour: “Are we being told that it’s wrong to kill an entire family at gunpoint but it’s okay to shell them to death?”
According to the latest estimates from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, 5,000 Palestinians have died in the 18-day IDF shellings.
Israel has rejected criticism of its strategy, insisting they are targeting Hamas commandos and leaders.
But they accused the fundamentalists of setting up their headquarters in residential areas, saying civilians are the unfortunate collateral damage of their efforts to root out Hamas from the region.
Jordan – home to the largest community of Palestinian refugees in the Middle East – Egypt and the Palestinian Authoritypulled out from a summit with Joe Biden last week to protest the type of support America is offering Israel.
Biden has backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s retaliation plans and has so far rejected appeals to pressure him into agreeing to a ceasefire.
National Security Counsel spokesman John Kirby said on Monday: “We’re not talking about a ceasefire right now.
“In fact, we don’t believe that this is the time for a ceasefire. Israel has a right to defend themselves.
“They still have work to do to go after Hamas leadership, we’re going to keep supporting them or giving them more security assistance.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken notably avoided using the word ceasefire when speaking about the need for “humanitarian pauses” during his recent speech to the UN Security Council.
However, the US vetoed a motion from the Council in favour of a humanitarian break to the hostilities.
They cited the failure to recognize Israel’s right to self-defence in the proposal as the main reason for their opposition.
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