Jordan jailed three Hamas members for planning attacks against Israelis on Jordanian soil.
The Jordanian men of Palestinian descent were sentenced Thursday to prison terms between five and 15 years after being convicted of a terrorist plot.
They were rounded up in 2006 and confessed publicly to intending to kill Jordanian intelligence officials. The men also were also accused of planning deadly attacks on the Israeli Embassy in Amman and on Israelis in Jordan.
Hamas did not deny the three were members, but said the Islamist Palestinian faction would never act against Jordanian interests.
Jordan was carved out of British Mandate Palestine in the 1920s and placed under a minority Hashemite monarchy. The country’s Palestinians have long resented the regime and identified with compatriots in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hamas has special appeal among Jordan’s growing Islamist opposition.
