King Abdullah II of Jordan has declared support for Palestine, saying peace is not possible in the Middle East without the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The Jordanian leader spoke amid the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group.

Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, launched a large-scale attack on Israel, killing at least 1,200 people and kidnapping around 150 others over the weekend.

Retaliatory airstrikes by Israeli forces on Gaza also left at least 900 dead.

Addressing deputies in a speech at the opening of a new parliamentary session on Wednesday, the Jordanian King said, “Our region will never be secure nor stable without achieving just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the two-state solution.”

According to him, there cannot be ‘stability, security or peace’ in the region without a sovereign Palestinian state on 1967 borders.

“A Palestinian independent and sovereign state should be on June 4th, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and so that the cycles of killing, whose ultimate victims are innocent civilians, end,” he added.