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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.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Details
Through Her Lens: The stories behind the photography of Eva Sereny
Forewords by Jacqueline Bisset and Charlotte Rampling, ACC Art Books
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Specs
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Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Frankenstein in Baghdad
Ahmed Saadawi
Penguin Press
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
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Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
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How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
