Jordan-West Bank crossing closed after lorry driver kills three Israelis

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A lorry driver from Jordan shot dead three Israelis at the Allenby Bridge border crossing into the occupied West Bank on Sunday, prompting Israeli authorities to close all three land entry points from the kingdom.

The Israeli army said the assailant opened fire on the Israeli side of the Allenby terminal before he was shot dead by troops. The lorry was later checked for explosives and was declared safe.

Jordan’s Interior Ministry identified the driver as Maher Al Jazi, from the southern Maan province, and said the attack was “an individual act”. The ministry said Jordan would co-ordinate with Israel for the return of his body, while a number of Jordanian drivers who were detained by Israeli authorities after the attack have been released.

The crossing was shut in both directions, with no details as to when it might reopen, Jordan's state Petra news agency reported.

Israel closed two other land crossings with Jordan – the Sheikh Hussein crossing in the north and the Peace crossing between Aqaba and Eilat in the south – at the request of security authorities, The Times of Israel reported.

Two Jordanian lorry drivers at the Allenby crossing said a fork lift operator and a loading worker were among the three people killed in the attack. Video filmed on his phone by one of the drivers showed the attacker walking briskly across the unloading yard and shooting rounds from a pistol while taking cover next to a concrete barrier.

“The Israelis ordered all of us to lay on the ground, hands outstretched,” one witness told The National.

Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service said it treated three men in their 60s who were in serious condition. All three were later pronounced dead.

The men were later publicly identified as civilian customs workers from settlements in the West Bank.

The Allenby Bridge crossing is the only direct border route between Jordan and the West Bank. It is a major cargo route, and the only land outlet for Palestinians in the West Bank seeking to travel abroad. Since the onset of the Gaza war, some humanitarian aid has been passing through it.

The rare attack comes amid anger in Jordan over Israel's conduct in the Gaza war and accusations by supporters of militant groups in the Middle East that Jordanian authorities have not been doing enough to support Palestinians in the war.

Iraq's Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia praised the "heroic operation for the Islamic Resistance in Jordan".

In 1999, Jordan expelled the leadership of Hamas, the main Iranian-backed group fighting Israel in Gaza, on suspicion that it was undermining national security.

Sunday's attack prompted the closure of all three land crossings between Jordan and Israel, sources on both sides said. The official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported the arrest of Palestinian workers at the crossing and a strong military presence in the West Bank city of Jericho, where soldiers closed checkpoints leading in and out of the city and began searching cars.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the shooting during a security cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, saying the victims were “murdered in cold blood," equating the incident with the deaths of six hostages in Gaza last week.

“We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran's axis of evil,” he said. “In recent days, despicable terrorists have murdered six of our abductees in cold blood and three Israeli police officers. The murderers do not distinguish between us, they want to murder us all, until the last one.”

Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994, based on security guarantees between the two sides and open borders. The treaty resulted in a sharp increase of US aid to Jordan and limited commercial exchange between Jordan and Israel, although Jordan has increasingly become a conduit for goods to Israel since Gaza war resulted in attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Attacks from Jordan on Israelis across the Jordan River have been rare, although security sources say that attempts to infiltrate or smuggle weapons into Israel from Jordan have risen since the Gaza war.

The deadliest attack was in March 1997, when a Jordanian soldier, stationed in the north of the kingdom, killed seven Israeli schoolgirls near a park on the Israeli side of the Jordan river.

Jordanian authorities sentenced the soldier, Ahmad Daqamseh, to 20 years in prison. He was released at the end of his sentence.

Israeli authorities have considered bolstering security on the Jordanian border since the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel which led to the current war in Gaza, according to local media reports.

In March, the government revived a debate on building a fence along the border, a proposal put forward several times by Mr Netanyahu, including just a month before the war began.

The Israeli army is also planning to establish a new border police unit, specialising in intelligence, to operate on the Jordanian frontier, the Kan public broadcaster reported on Sunday.

Jordan has also increased security on its side of the border, prohibiting gatherings near the border since the war began.

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