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A truck driver shot dead three Israeli guards at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan Sunday before being “eliminated”, Israel’s military said, as it pounded Gaza with new strikes.
Jordan’s interior ministry identified the shooter as Jordanian national Maher Diab Hussein Al-Jazi, citing “preliminary investigations”.
The rare attack at the Allenby Bridge crossing comes amid soaring violence in the West Bank with major Israeli raids and attacks by Palestinians, and against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas Gaza war, now in its 12th month.
The military said “a terrorist” reached the crossing area, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, in a truck “from Jordan”.
The driver “exited the truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces operating at the bridge”, a military statement said.
The military told Agence France-Presse that three Israelis working as “security guards” were killed in the shooting, adding they were not in the army or police.
The attacker was shot dead, the military said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the assailant as a “despicable terrorist” inspired by “a murderous ideology” which he said was fuelled by Iran.
Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility for it, adding it “affirms the Arab peoples’ rejection of the (Israeli) occupation, its crimes, and its ambitions in Palestine and Jordan”.
The crossing, in the Jordan Valley, is the only international gateway for Palestinians from the West Bank that does not require entering Israel, which has occupied the territory since 1967.
Bloodshed rises in West Bank
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza which began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Israel’s military on 28 August launched simultaneous raids across several cities and refugee camps in the northern West Bank, killing at least 36 Palestinians, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.
The military said it killed 35 militants. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed at least 14 of the fatalities as members.
Since October 7, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.
On Sunday, Israel pounded Gaza with air strikes and shelling as prospects remained dim for a ceasefire, while in the evening the military said two rockets were fired from northern Gaza towards the area of Ashkelon.
One was intercepted, while the other fell off the coast of Ashkelon city, it said.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said nearly a dozen people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Sunday, including five in Jabalia refugee camp.