AMMAN, Jordan

Jordan’s King Abdullah II and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agreed on the need to protect aid workers in the besieged Gaza Strip, the royal court said in a statement on Wednesday. 

The two sides discussed over the phone the “dangerous situation” in Gaza and stressed the necessity “of protecting workers of humanitarian relief organizations in the Strip,” the statement said.

Abdullah underlined Jordan’s commitment “to making every effort to deliver humanitarian, medical, and relief aid by all means, in coordination with various international organizations and partners.”

He called on the international community to step up efforts to end the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, the statement said.

Guterres, for his part, hailed Jordan’s role in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza’s population, according to the statement.

The US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) confirmed that seven of its humanitarian aid workers were killed Monday in an Israeli strike.

The slain workers killed were nationals from Australia, Poland, the UK, Palestine, as well as a US-Canada dual citizen.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, which killed less than 1,200 people.

At least 32,975 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 75,577 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which last week asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala