A gunman shot and killed three Israeli civilians at an important border crossing between the Israeli-controlled West Bank and Jordan on Sunday, the Israeli military said, amid heightened tensions between Jordan and Israel over the war in Gaza.
The shooter arrived in a truck from Jordan to the Allenby Bridge, the main land crossing between the country and the West Bank, and opened fire with a 9mm handgun at Israelis who work at the crossing, the military said. The shooter, whom Israeli and Jordanian authorities haven’t yet identified, was killed by Israeli security forces at the scene, the military said.
The three victims of the shooting were pronounced dead at the site of the attack. The Allenby Bridge, the main exit and entry point for Palestinians in the West Bank, has been closed until further notice by Israeli authorities.
Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, praised the shooting but didn’t claim responsibility.
Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994 and have close security and economic ties. But diplomatic relations, strained for years, have significantly worsened since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza. Many Jordanian citizens are Palestinian and resent the government’s continued relations with Israel.
Jordan’s government has been a staunch critic of the way Israel has prosecuted the war and has called for an arms embargo on Israel.
Since the outbreak of the war, protesters in Jordan have called on their government to abrogate the peace treaty with Israel and annul major economic partnerships.
Despite the tension between the two governments, the Israeli military hasn’t made special arrangements on the border with Jordan since the war began, according to an Israeli security official.
Violent incidents like the shooting on Sunday at the bridge are rare.
In 2014, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Jordanian judge of Palestinian descent, after, according to Israel’s military, he tried to grab a soldier’s weapon.
Suha Ma’ayeh contributed to this article.
