Israeli police stand guard near the site of a deadly shooting attack where Israeli officials say three people were shot and killed at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan on Sept. 8.Mahmoud Illean/The Associated Press
Three Israelis were shot and killed Sunday at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Israeli officials said, in what appeared to be an attack linked to the 11-month-old war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said the gunman approached the Allenby Bridge Crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed him in a shootout. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said the three Israelis were men in their 50s and the military said they were civilians.
Relatives identified the gunman as Maher al-Jazi, a retired Jordanian soldier from Athroh, a town in the impoverished area of Maan. Jordan’s state-run Petra News Agency said he was a truck driver transporting goods to the West Bank. The interior ministry confirmed that, based on initial investigation results, the incident was an individual act.
Jordan was investigating. The Western-allied Arab country made peace with Israel in 1994 but is deeply critical of its policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan has a large Palestinian population and has seen mass protests against Israel over the war in Gaza.
Hundreds of Jordanians marched in the streets of Amman to celebrate the attack, chanting slogans in support of Mr. al-Jazi and burning the Israeli flag.
“We bless this heroic operation carried out by this noble Jordanian hero,” said Murad Adaileh, head of the local Muslim Brotherhood Party. He added, addressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “There is no place for you in Palestine.”
The Allenby crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is mainly used by Palestinians and international tourists, as well as for cargo shipments. The crossing has seen few security incidents over the years, but in 2014 Israeli security guards shot and killed a Jordanian judge who they said had attacked them.
The crossing was closed, and Israel announced the closure of both of its land crossings with Jordan, near Beit Shean in the north and Eilat in the south. It later said all would reopen on Monday.
Mr. Netanyahu condemned the attack and linked it to Israel’s larger conflict with Iran and allied militant groups, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Israel has launched near-daily military arrest raids into dense Palestinian residential areas, and there has been a rise in Israeli settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
Also on Sunday, loved ones mourned Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American-Turkish woman who was shot dead on Friday in the West Bank. She had been demonstrating against Israeli settlements there. The White House has said it was “deeply disturbed” and called on Israel to investigate, while her family seeks an independent investigation. Her body remained at a hospital in Nablus.
In Gaza, an Israeli air strike killed five people, including two women, two children and a senior official in the Civil Defence – first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government. The Civil Defence said the strike targeted the home of its deputy director for northern Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The army says it tries to avoid harming civilians and only targets militants.
Another Israeli strike hit the Eid family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp and killed at least two girls, according to an Associated Press journalist who counted the bodies and witnesses. First responders looked for others under the rubble.
Paltel, one of the territory’s main telecom providers, said all household internet in central and southern Gaza was down because of ongoing attacks.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began. It does not differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count. The war has caused vast destruction and displaced around 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack. They abducted another 250 and are still holding around 100 after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a week-long ceasefire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a ceasefire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – territories the Palestinians want for a future state – in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but maintained control over its airspace, coastline and most of its land crossings. Along with Egypt, it imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.