Jordan said on Monday that it was leaving all options open in its response to what it described as Israel's failure to distinguish between military and civilian targets in its intense bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip.

According to the Reuters news agency, Prime Minister Bisher Al-Khasawneh did not clarify the further steps that Jordan would take after it recalled its ambassador from Israel a few days ago in protest against the bombing launched by Israel on Gaza after the Hamas movement’s cross-border attack on it on October 7. Jordan announced last week that it would not allow the Israeli ambassador, who left Amman shortly after the Hamas attack, to return to resume his duties at the present time, and said that he is persona non grata.

Al-Khasawneh, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, told official media that all options are available to Jordan in dealing with what he described as the Israeli aggression against Gaza and its repercussions. He stated that the siege imposed by Israel on the densely populated Gaza Strip is not self-defense as it claims. He added that the Israeli attack does not distinguish between civilian and military targets and extends to safe areas and ambulances.

Israel denied intentionally bombing civilian targets in densely populated areas, and said that Hamas uses civilians as human shields, digs tunnels under hospitals, and uses ambulances to transport its fighters.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “The country’s relations with Jordan are of strategic importance to both countries, and we regret the inflammatory statements issued by the Jordanian leadership.” Diplomats familiar with Jordanian politics said that the country is reviewing its economic, security and political relations with Israel, and is even considering suspending further steps in implementing the peace treaty if the bloodshed in Gaza worsens.

The war between Israel and Hamas has reawakened old fears in Jordan, which hosts a large number of Palestinian refugees, that Israel would seize the opportunity and expel Palestinians en masse from the West Bank, where attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians have increased since the Hamas attack on October 7. 

These fears have increased since the Israeli coalition government - which belongs to the religious nationalist movement and is considered the most right-wing government ever - took power last year, and some extremists adopted the principle that "Jordan is Palestine."

Officials said that King Abdullah expressed these concerns during his talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels, warning of widespread violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem if Jewish settler attacks against Palestinian civilians were not curbed.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that any move to transfer Palestinians to Jordan, which shares a common border with the West Bank, is a “red line” that amounts to a declaration of war. Al-Safadi said last week that Jordan would confront any attempt by Israel to expel the Palestinians in an effort to change the geography and demographics. Security sources said that the Jordanian army has already strengthened its positions along the border.

Diplomats said that Jordan's concerns were at the top of the issues discussed in talks with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken since the outbreak of the Gaza war, and they are likely to be raised in a meeting with William Burns, director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during his stop in Jordan soon.