Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak

Jordan said on Tuesday it had arrested 16 people linked to the Muslim Brotherhood who were trained and financed in Lebanon and had plotted attacks on targets inside the kingdom involving rockets and drones.

Authorities said at least one rocket was ready to be launched as part of an operation that had been under surveillance by security forces since 2021.

A security source said the suspects were connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition group, while the head of the cell who trained some of its members was based in Lebanon.

The Brotherhood have been accused of instigating anti-government street protests in Jordan, which has a large Palestinian population.

Security forces found a rocket manufacturing facility alongside a drone factory, according to a statement by the General Intelligence Department released on state media.

“The plot aimed at harming national security, sowing chaos and causing material destruction inside the kingdom,” the statement said.

The suspects were referred to the state security court for trial.

“We are talking about new tactics, rockets and drones. This means a complete change in the way the Muslim Brotherhood are dealing with Jordan and targeting its security,” Amer Al Sabaileh, a prominent security analyst, told Reuters.

Government spokesperson Mohammad al Momani told a press briefing the government would be airing full confessions from the suspects, some of whom had been trained in Lebanon.

The rockets found in a secret hideout on the outskirts of the capital were being manufactured with a 3 to 5 km range for use against targets inside the kingdom, Momani added.

A security source said dozens of rockets were found.

Over the past year, Jordan has said it has foiled attempts to smuggle weapons by infiltrators linked to pro-Iranian militias in Syria and Lebanon-based radical Palestinian groups.

They said some of the arms were bound for the neighboring West Bank, adding that they have arrested several Jordanians linked to Palestinian terrorists.

Security officials said the incidents were terrorism-related based on the quantities of explosives found.

They said the plot was linked to Iran and its allies’ clandestine efforts to recruit agents to carry out acts of sabotage within the kingdom to destabilize one of Washington’s allies in the region.

Jordan has over 3,500 American troops stationed in several bases and, since the war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza erupted in October 2023, it has been increasingly targeted by Iranian-backed groups operating in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

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A Torah and a photograph of Edan Alexander, the American-Israeli and Israel Defense Forces soldier taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, sit in his home during a family interview with Reuters in Tenafly, New Jersey, US, Dec. 14, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Stephani Spindel

The armed wing of Hamas said on Tuesday it had lost contact with a group of terrorists holding Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander in the Gaza Strip.

Abu Ubaida, the armed wing‘s spokesperson, said on the social media platform Telegram that it lost contact after the Israeli army attacked the place where the terrorists were holding Alexander, who is a New Jersey native and a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army.

Abu Ubaida did not say where in Gaza Alexander was purportedly held. Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has controlled Gaza for nearly two decades, later released a video warning hostages’ families that their “children will return in black coffins with their bodies torn apart from shrapnel from your army.”

Hamas has previously blamed Israel for the deaths of hostages held in Gaza, including as a direct result of military operations, while also acknowledging on at least one occasion that a hostage was killed by a guard. It said the guard had acted against instructions.

There was no immediate response from the Israeli military to a request for comment on the Hamas statement about Alexander.

US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff told reporters at the White House in March that gaining the release of Alexander, believed to be the last living American hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, was a “top priority for us.”

The Tikva Forum, a group representing some family members of those held in Gaza, had said earlier on Tuesday that Alexander was among up to 10 hostages who could be released by Hamas if a new ceasefire was reached, citing a conversation a day earlier between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the mother of another hostage. There was no immediate comment on that from Netanyahu’s office.

On Saturday Hamas released a video purportedly showing Alexander, who has been held in Gaza since he was captured by Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.

The release of Alexander was at the center of earlier talks held between Hamas leaders and US hostage negotiator Adam Boehler last month.

Hamas released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on Jan. 19. In March, Israel’s military resumed its ground and aerial offensive on Gaza, abandoning the ceasefire after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war.

Israeli officials say that offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war and has rejected demands to lay down its arms.

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The body of a motorist lies on a road following a mass-infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in Sderot, southern Israel October 7, 2023. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

The United Nations was founded to maintain international peace and security. But the UN subverts that goal when faced with terrorist groups like Hamas.

Hamas has waged war on Israel five times in 15 years, not counting thousands of one-off terror attacks. The group’s genocidal charter envisions the destruction of Israel — and even genocidal assaults on Jews everywhere — to avenge Allah, not to gain self-determination. The Palestinians already have self-determination, thanks to Israeli compromises in the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Accords.

During each Hamas offensive, the group seizes military advantages through wholesale violations of international humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the laws of war. Most alarmingly, these religious fanatics target Israeli civilians, use Palestinian civilians as human shields, convert civilian buildings such as homes, schools, and hospitals into military positions, and take Israelis hostage. The four-part mixture of war crimes exploits Israel’s compliance with IHL. Specifically, Israeli commanders accept military setbacks because they willingly operate in a manner that protects Palestinian civilians.

To address this deadly IHL imbalance, the UN has a large workshop of disciplinary tools it could use. For example, because Hamas violates Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits attacks on civilians, the UN Security Council could adopt a legally binding and enforceable resolution ordering Hamas to comply with the law. Alternatively, the UN could refer the IHL violation to its principal judicial organ, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Similar measures before the UN and ICJ could enforce Article 57 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which bans the use of human shields, and the International Convention Against Hostage Taking. The anti-terrorist laws already require all UN member states to prosecute terror suspects or extradite them for prosecution.

Unfortunately, the UN and many member states ignore the above mandates. No UN resolution has ever condemned Hamas for designing war strategies based on war crimes. The UN has never even declared Hamas a terrorist organization.

Over time, Hamas has capitalized on its IHL impunity by designing war plans with even more elaborate war crimes. Its fifth war, launched on  October 7, 2023, produced an Industrial Revolution of IHL abuse. The primary innovation was to upgrade the Gaza terror tunnels into a complex underground fortress spanning 350 miles, while adding countless more civilian structures as warfighting sites. Essentially, Hamas turned Gaza into a giant human shield. It maximized the killing of Israelis by using drone technology for surveillance, shaped explosive charges to blast multiple holes in Gaza’s border fence, motorized paragliders to supplement the ground-based assault, and used cyberattacks. Consequently, the jihadists killed far more Israelis and captured many more hostages on October 7 than in any prior attack or war.

Individual IHL atrocities also grew more extreme. Babies murdered with bare hands. Decapitations. Rape with female genital mutilation. Families burned alive. Hostages tortured and starved.

Under the shield of UN passivity, Hamas even persecutes its own people. Ordinary Gazans have no voice in their governance and no civil liberties. Perceived dissidents are summarily killed. Because the Islamist gang enlarged the battleground of the current war to include all of Gaza, virtually the entire district is now destroyed. During bouts of combat, the gunmen warned Gazans not to enter Israeli-designated safe zones. Hamas operatives routinely stole humanitarian aid intended for the masses. Recently, crowds of Gazans became so desperate that they staged public protests. Hamas executed some of them and tortured others.

Hamas needlessly prolongs misery on both sides of the blood-soaked conflict, every day that it continues its hopeless military campaign against Israel.

The UN should have responded to Hamas’s fifth war on Israel by punishing Hamas for the lawless slaying of Israelis, the deaths of Palestinian human shields, and the hostage-taking. But ironically, the UN treated Israel as if it were the IHL culprit.

This cynical approach was a typical product of an anti-Western UN voting bloc, called the “automatic majority,” which scapegoats Israel relentlessly. No wonder the ICJ entertained a petition that absurdly accused Israel of genocide. Remarks of the UN rapporteur for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were so antisemitic that she compared Israel to Nazi Germany, claimed the US was controlled by “the Israel lobby,” and implied that the October 7 massacre was justified.

The UN office for humanitarian affairs parroted Hamas’ falsified casualty statistics. The UN agency authorized to give Palestinians humanitarian aid employed members of Hamas and failed, whether through negligence or design, to stop them from looting the aid. Although a few toothless UN resolutions pushed for ceasefires, they falsely branded Hamas and Israel as equally responsible for the violence.

Last year, a world body that cooperates with the UN threatened to restrain Hamas. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for certain Hamas leaders. However, there was no ICC follow-up when those leaders were subsequently eliminated. The court’s motives were suspect because, even as it failed to act against Hamas, it sought to arrest Israeli officials despite worldwide complaints that it lacked jurisdiction over Israel.

Had the UN done its job, Hamas might be disarmed today. Israelis would not be suffering in captivity. Gaza would still be intact. If the UN continues to countenance IHL-exploiting war plans, Hamas and/or other terrorists will continue to make a mockery of IHL. At some point, the systemic criminality may force countries like Israel to adjust their IHL compliance strategies by doing more to protect their own civilians and less to protect others, something a fair reading of IHL would permit. This race to the bottom would only erode the value of IHL.

Joel M. Margolis is the Legal Commentator, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, US Affiliate of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. His 2021 book, The Israeli-Palestinian Legal War, analyzed the major legal issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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