Jordanian gunman kills three Israelis at border crossing

A gunman from Jordan killed three Israeli civilians at the Allenby Bridge border crossing in the occupied West Bank before security forces shot him dead on Sunday, Israeli authorities said.

It was the first attack of its kind on the border with Jordan since October 7, when the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, triggering the war in the Gaza Strip that escalated throughout the region.

The attack took place in an Israeli-controlled cargo area where Jordanian trucks unload cargo destined for the West Bank, officials said. The crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is about halfway between Amman and Jerusalem, north of the Dead Sea.

The attacker was a 39-year-old truck driver who, according to family members, was from the influential Huwaitat tribe in southern Jordan. He was later identified by the Jordanian Interior Ministry as Maher Ziab Hussein al-Jazi, a resident of the Husseiniya region in the southern Ma'an governorate.

“A terrorist approached the Allenby Bridge area from Jordan in a truck, got out and opened fire on Israeli security forces operating at the bridge,” the Israeli military said.

“The terrorist was eliminated by security forces, and three Israeli civilians were declared dead in the attack.”

Jordan was investigating the shooting. The Allenby Bridge, a key crossing for trade between Jordan and Israel and one of five land border crossings between the two countries, was closed, the Jordanian Interior Ministry said. The crossing mainly serves the more than three million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

The Israeli crossing chief said three workers were shot at close range by the driver, who came from Jordan.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 and maintain close security relations. Dozens of trucks cross the border every day carrying goods from Jordan and the Gulf, supplying both the West Bank and the Israeli market. (Reuters)