Queen Rania of Jordan shares sweet moments with Palestinian children battling cancer who have been evacuated to Amman for treatment amid Israel-Hamas conflict

• The Jordanian royal, 52, met with children during an arts and crafts session
• READ MORE: American orphan, 4, is freed by Hamas seven weeks after she was kidnapped but will now learn her parents were murdered 

Queen Rania of Jordan shared tender moments with Palestinian children undergoing cancer treatment this afternoon as she visited a medical centre in Amman.

The Jordanian royal, 53, visited the King Hussein Cancer Centre where children from the Gaza strip who are currently battling cancer have been evacuated so they can continue their treatment.

Her visit comes amid a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, which has allowed for Israeli hostages captured on October 7 to be released, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. 

The pause also came amid growing pressure from international bodies, including the World Health Organisation, to allow aid into Gaza as the medical facilities and resources in the region suffered under the weight of the conflict. 

A statement issued by the WHO last week issued a warning about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, claiming the medical provisiond were ‘clearly not enough to support the endless needs’ in the region.

Queen Rania of Jordan visited the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman to meet Palestinian children from Gaza who have been evacuated to Jordan to continue their treatment

Queen Rania of Jordan has been heavily critical of the Israeli government since fighting broke out after Hamas killed approximately 1,400 people in a terrorist attack in early October – and also took to American television to criticise the West for its support of Israel. 

The royal, who was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents and grew up in the West Bank, appeared on CNN last month where she blasted Israel, describing it as an ‘apartheid regime’.  

She said she ‘of course’ condemned the killing of innocent Israelis by Hamas; but asked why Israel’s self-defense was not coming under the same level of global scrutiny and reserved all her sympathy for Palestinians.

Queen Rania, who has been married to King Abdullah of Jordan for 30 years, made the comments on veteran broadcaster Christiane Amanpour’s show.

The Jordanian Queen visited children in the medical centre amid a pause in fighting in Gaza so aid can be delivered 

Queen Rania (pictured) has been heavily critical of Israel’s retaliatory attacks on Gaza following the October 7 terrorist attack

The Jordanian Queen, 53, found herself covered in stickers as she joined an arts and crafts session with a young boy battling cancer

A little boy beamed as he sat with the Jordanian royal to do some arts and crafts at the King Hussein Cancer Centre

Amanpour began by asking the 53-year-old how she had felt since the Hamas attack of October 7 ‘as an Arab, as a Palestinian, as a mother, as a human being’.

Rania replied: ‘I cannot begin to describe to you the depth of the grief, the pain and the shock that we are feeling here in Jordan.

She said her country, home to the world’s largest Palestinian population, was ‘united in grief, regardless of our origin’.

Amanpour did directly appeal for sympathy for Israelis and condemnation of Hamas, asking if Queen Rania ‘accepted’ that they had brought suffering on Palestinians.

Queen Rania made a brief concession, but then returned to criticizing Israel and its allies.

The Jordanian royal’s visit to Palestinian children comes as pause in fighting has been agreed to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip.

During the pause, Hamas is slowly freeing some of the approximately 240 hostages taken from the Kibbutz and the Tribe of Nova Festival on the October 7 terror attack, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

So far, more than 80 hostages have been released by Hamas, in exchange for approximately 200 prisoners.

One of the hostages who has been returned to her family is eight-year-old Emily Hand, who was initially feared to have been killed in the attack.

The nine-year-old was reunited with her father Thomas, 63, a few days ago; more than a month after a tearful interview in which he spoke about his relief in hearing she had died in the attack, because in his mind, death was a kinder fate than being held by Hamas.

Since the emotional reunion, Thomas has revealed his daughter, who turned nine while in captivity, has ‘lost a lot of weight’.

Although he is relieved to be reunited with his daughter, he told The Sun: ‘We’re still fighting… as they promised they would not release children without mothers but they did not [keep that promise].’ 

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