Abu Ali al-Askari, a senior official in Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah faction, said in a statement on 1 April that his group is prepared to arm “tens of thousands of resistance fighters in Jordan.”
“The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has prepared its equipment to equip our brothers, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Jordan, to meet the need of 12,000 fighters with light and medium weapons, anti-armor launchers, tactical missiles, ammunition, and tons of explosives,” Askari said.
"We are ready to begin these preparations, and it is sufficient for that to be recommended by the mujahideen of Hamas or [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad (PIJ),” he added.
The statement comes as pro-Palestine activists and supporters of the Palestinian resistance in Jordan continue to protest against Israel and its ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip. The protesters have faced significant repression from Jordanian authorities.
Late last month, protesters attempted to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman. Jordan’s Public Security Directorate said on 31 March that only peaceful protests, not violence, will be tolerated at the Israeli embassy.
Popular sympathy for the Palestinian resistance has always been high in Jordan and has surged recently. Last year, Jordanian MP Imad al-Adwan was charged by Jordanian authorities after being accused of smuggling weapons into the occupied West Bank. Adwan was treated as a national hero by many Jordanians.
Askari’s statement also comes one day after a drone launched from Iraq successfully targeted an Israeli base in the southern port city of Eilat. The attack was claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) coalition of factions, of which Kataib Hezbollah is a prominent member.
“Let us begin first by cutting off the land route that reaches the Zionist entity," Askari added.
The Iraqi resistance official was referring to a land route between Israel and Arab states that has been used to help the Israeli government bypass the Yemeni blockade on its interests in the Red and Arab Seas. As part of these efforts, goods arrive in the UAE by ship and are trucked into Saudi Arabia and Jordan before being delivered into Israel via the King Hussein Bridge.
In late January, the Iraqi resistance group Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS) announced its intention to enforce a naval blockade on Israeli shipping in the Mediterranean Sea.
Following the start of the war in Gaza, several Iraqi resistance factions banded together to form the IRI and began striking US bases in Iraq and Syria. The IRI suspended attacks on US bases following the killing of three US soldiers in a drone attack on the Jordanian–Syrian border.
However, it has since continued to announce attacks on Israeli targets.