3 Israelis shot dead at West Bank-Jordan border, Netanyahu calls gunman 'abhorrent terrorist'

A Jordanian truck driver opened fire at a border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, killing three Israeli security officials. According to The Times of Israel, the incident took place on Sunday at the Allenby Bridge crossing over the River Jordan. The bridge is also known as the King Hussein Bridge. The attack took place just hours after Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza killed a senior aid official and two women and two children from his family.

“A terrorist approached the area of the Allenby Bridge from Jordan in a truck, exited the truck, and opened fire at the Israeli security forces operating at the bridge,” the Israeli military said in a statement after the incident. “The terrorist was eliminated by the security forces, and three Israeli civilians were pronounced dead as a result of the attack,” the military furthered.

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Meanwhile, Jordan’s foreign ministry condemned the incident and noted that the country has opened an investigation into the matter. “Jordan’s firm position rejecting and condemning violence and targeting civilians for any reason,” the ministry said in a statement.

About the culprit

After the preliminary investigation, Jordanian authorities said that the probes have so far concluded that the attack was committed by a “lone assailant”. Authorities from both sides have closed the border crossing.

Preliminary investigation also showed that the gunman was a 39-year-old truck driver who came from the influential Huwaitat tribe in southern Jordan. The Israeli military noted that the shooting was carried out at close range in a commercial section of the border crossing. This is the region where trucks from Jordan and the Gulf go to unload for onward transport into the occupied West Bank and Israel.

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The border where the shooting incident took place has largely remained quiet since Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994. Shortly after the incident, Israel announced that it was closing all three of its land border crossings with Jordan.

The Israeli army has also reportedly cordoned off the West Bank city of Jericho, which is the nearest to the Allenby Bridge crossing, in case other would-be attackers had already entered. Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the gunman “an abhorrent terrorist”.

“We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil,” he said in a statement issued at the start of a cabinet meeting. Since the start of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, there has been a major rise in violence in the West Bank. The violence also includes the Israeli army raids on Palestinian towns along with increasing attacks by Israeli settlers.

With inputs from agencies.