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Three Israeli men have been shot dead at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, Israeli officials have said.
It was the first attack of its kind along the border with Jordan since 7 October, when Hamas carried out an attack on southern Israel, sparking a new phase in the Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza that has since escalated throughout the region.
The Israeli military said the gunman had approached the Allenby Bridge crossing in a truck from the Jordanian side, before exiting the vehicle and opening fire.
The attacker was “eliminated” during the shootout, while three Israeli men, all in their 50s, were pronounced dead.
An official said that those killed had been security guards who were not part of the army or police.
The truck has since been searched for explosives, with Jordan saying they are investigating the shooting. The border point has been closed from both sides. The Western-allied Arab country made peace with Israel in 1994 but is deeply critical of its policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan has a large Palestinian population and has seen mass protests against Israel over the war in Gaza.
A Jordanian border official told Reuters that at least two dozen Jordanian truck drivers had been detained in the offloading area by Israel’s military for questioning.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and linked it to Israel’s larger conflict with Iran and allied militant groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
At the start of a cabinet meeting, he sent his condolences to the victims’ families and said: “A loathsome terrorist murdered three of our citizens in cold blood at the Allenby Bridge.”
The Allenby Bridge over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is mainly used by Palestinians and international tourists, as well as for cargo shipments.
It lies about halfway between Amman and Jerusalem, and is the only entry point to the West Bank that does not go through Israel.
The Hamas attack on 7 October killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Another 250 people were abducted and taken into Gaza. Hamas and other militant groups are still holding around 100 after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a week-long ceasefire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.
In the wake of the Gaza conflict, the West Bank has also seen a surge of violence, with near-daily military arrest raids being carried out in dense Palestinian residential areas.
There has also been a rise in violence between Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
On Sunday in northern Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed a senior aid official and four members of his family, who had been living in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp.
Mohammed Morsi, who was the deputy director of northern Gaza’s civil defence group, died in the attack alongside two women and two children.
Also on Sunday, loved ones mourned Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American-Turkish woman who was shot dead on Friday in the West Bank.
She had been demonstrating against Israeli settlements there. The White House has said it was “deeply disturbed” and called on Israel to investigate, while her family seeks an independent investigation.
Since the outbreak of violence in Gaza, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank amid army raids and settler attacks.
Meanwhile, over 40,000 Palestinians have died inside the besieged enclave, while an estimated 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced.
Ceasefire negotiations led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a deal and the return of the hostages taken by Hamas, but neither side have been able to agree on terms.
