Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates confirmed early Tuesday, September 17, that the authorities received the body of Jordanian citizen Maher al-Jazi from Israel. Jordanian media outlets reported that Jordan exerted great pressure to retrieve Al-Jazi’s body after Israel showed intransigence and absolute refusal to hand it over. Israeli media outlets also reported that the decision to return Al-Jazi’s body was made by the Israeli authorities as a result of heavy pressure from its neighbor in order to “maintain the quality of security relations between the two countries”.
Maher-Jazi was killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) after he carried out an unprecedented shooting attack at the King Hussein Bridge (Allenby) border crossing between Israel and Jordan on September 8, as a response to Israeli crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. After the Jordanian authorities received his body, he was handed over to his family, and was buried in his hometown ِAl-Husayniyah, in the southern Jordanian governorate of Ma’an.
The burial took place after a funeral prayer was performed by a large crowd of Jordanians, who came from different parts of Jordan to bid Maher al-Jazi a farewell carrying his body, which was wrapped in the Jordanian flag, on their shoulders. The mourners chanted slogans praising Al-Jazi’s sacrifice and expressing their pride for what he did. They also chanted slogans supporting Palestine and the resistance against the Israeli occupation.
The official spokesperson of Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ambassador Sufian Al-Qudah also said in a statement to Jordan News Agency (Petra) on Tuesday, that coordination between the ministry and other concerned Jordanian authorities to release the other two Jordanian citizens Musleh Al-Awdat and Hussein Al-Naimat, who were arrested by Israel on the same day of Al-Jazi’s attack, are underway.
