Jordan’s chief diplomat expressed skepticism on Saturday regarding Israel’s declared aim to eliminate the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas, with whom it is engaged in conflict in Gaza.

“Israel says it wants to wipe out Hamas. There’s a lot of military people here, I just don’t understand how this objective can be realized,” Ayman Safadi remarked at the IISS Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain.

He also emphasized Jordan’s commitment to preventing the displacement of Palestinians, highlighting the intense Israeli airstrikes on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. This military action is in response to an assault by Hamas and other Islamist factions on October 7th.

“We will never allow that to happen, in addition to it being a war crime, it would be a direct threat to our national security. We’ll do whatever it takes to stop it,” Safadi stated.

Jordan, which hosts a significant number of Palestinian refugees and their offspring, is apprehensive about the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. There are concerns in Jordan that Israel might forcibly remove Palestinians from the West Bank, especially as attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have intensified since the October 7th incursion.

“This war is not taking us anywhere but towards more conflict, more suffering and the threat of expanding into regional wars,” Safadi asserted.