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Three Israelis had been killed after a Jordanian gunman opened hearth on safety personnel on the border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Financial institution, Israel’s army mentioned on Sunday.
The capturing is the primary such incident on the border between Jordan and the West Financial institution because the struggle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza erupted final 12 months, fanning tensions throughout the Center East.
The Israeli army mentioned the gunman had approached Allenby Bridge, also called King Hussein Bridge, in a truck from the Jordanian facet, earlier than opening hearth at Israeli forces who had been working on the crossing.
An Israeli official mentioned the gunman was a Jordanian citizen. Jordan’s state-run Petra Information Company mentioned he was a resident of the Al-Hussainiya space in Ma’an Governorate, a restive area within the south of the nation.
Three Israeli civilians had been killed within the assault, in response to the army. Israel’s paramedic service mentioned all three of the deceased had been males. The assailant was shot useless by Israeli forces.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the assault, and Israel’s airports authority mentioned that each Allenby Bridge — the one hyperlink between the West Financial institution and Jordan — and the land crossings between Israel and Jordan can be closed till additional discover.
Israeli forces additionally closed the northern and southern entrances to Jericho, the closest West Financial institution metropolis to the Allenby crossing, and had been finishing up checks on automobiles, in response to the Palestinian information company Wafa.
Benny Gantz, the chief of one in every of Israel’s predominant opposition events, mentioned the incident was “one other signal” that Israel wanted to strengthen its “defensive position” within the Jordan valley.
Jordan’s inside ministry mentioned the nation had launched an investigation into the capturing.
Jordan turned the second Arab nation after Egypt to determine diplomatic relations with Israel when the 2 sides signed a peace treaty in 1994. The dominion co-operates with Israel on safety issues. It was a part of a global coalition that helped Israel to fend off an Iranian missile barrage earlier this 12 months.
Nonetheless, the hovering Palestinian demise toll from the struggle in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’s devastating October 7 assault on Israel, has strained relations between the 2 nations. Jordan has a big Palestinian inhabitants that has led to protests in opposition to the struggle.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has condemned Hamas’s assault, throughout which militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 250 hostage, in response to Israeli figures.
However officers in Amman have additionally been fiercely crucial of the devastation wrought by Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza, which has up to now killed greater than 40,800 Palestinians, in response to native well being officers, and fuelled a humanitarian disaster within the coastal enclave.
Earlier this 12 months, King Abdullah’s son, Crown Prince Hussein, decried the failure of the worldwide group to cease the preventing, and accused the Israeli authorities of “escalating the state of affairs within the West Financial institution as effectively and attempting to tug the area right into a regional struggle”.
Tensions within the West Financial institution have risen sharply because the begin of the struggle in Gaza, and final week Israeli forces launched their largest operation within the occupied territory for years.
