RAMALLAH, Thursday, January 28, 2021 (WAFA) – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates and the embassy of the State of Palestine to Jordan announced today that all inbound flights scheduled for the next week have been canceled, due to the closure of the main border crossing to the West Bank over new variants of COVID-19.

The Ministry called on all those who have reservations for flights bound for Palestine to contact the Royal Jordanian Airlines or their local representatives to cancel the reservation or book a future flight.

Yesterday, the Palestinian government decided to close the only crossing for Palestinians in the West Bank with Jordan, the Karama (King Hussein Bridge) border crossing, for one week in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus variants.

Government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem said in a statement that following coordination with Jordan and Israel, it was decided to close the border crossing starting at 5 pm today until next Wednesday evening in order to prevent the spread of the virus variants, which spread faster and are more deadly.

As a matter of fact, Israeli occupation authorities by and large deny Palestinians international travel via Ben Gurion International Airport, therefore the only avenue available to Palestinians for travel abroad or coming back home is Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan, access to which requires passing through the Israeli-controlled Karama border crossing.

M.N