Israel is advancing a plan to develop a hospital on its territory to treat Jordanian patients as part of a joint Israeli-Jordanian industrial park along the border of the two countries, the Emek HaMaayanot regional council head revealed to The Times of Israel on Wednesday.

The industrial park, dubbed the “Jordan Gateway,” will enable Israelis and Jordanians to cross the border to work on joint projects. An existing bridge, the Jordan River Crossing, located near the Israeli city of Beit She’an, already connects the two sides of the proposed Jordan Gateway Zone.

Itamar Matiash, who heads the council that will house the Israeli side of the industrial park, told The Times of Israel on Tuesday that one idea for the hospital was for it to function as “a center for cancer treatment, so that people from Jordan or further away could come and receive treatment.”

The industrial park, he said, would both strengthen Israel’s economy and ease the high unemployment rates in Jordan, which stands at roughly 18 percent, compared to around 3% in Israel.

“The Jordanian side suffers from high unemployment,” Matiash explained, “and Jordanian workers will be able to cross and work on both sides. And Israelis will be able to establish factories on the Jordanian side.”

First proposed during the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace talks and approved by the government in 2022, plans for the industrial zone stalled in recent years due to mutual lawsuits between the state, the contractor building the bridge, and the regional council, according to Matiash. Over the past year, however, the regional council led a mediation process together........

© The Times of Israel