Investigations opened over Allenby crossing shooting
The Interior Ministry has opened an investigation to find out exactly what happened.
We also know that the Jordanians have closed their side of the border crossing, the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge and the Israelis have also closed off their side of the border. This is the only entry and exit point for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
We’re looking into the Israeli security failures around this attack. There has been a rise in these types of incidents, not from the Jordanian side, of course, but along the occupied West Bank.
There were several other Israeli security failures throughout the rest of the country, but at this point, the information is quite sparse from the Jordanian side as they begin to conduct their initial probe into the matter.
Netanyahu responds to border attack, calls for unity a day after mass protests
The Israeli prime minister has released a statement following the attack near Jordan’s border with the occupied West Bank that killed three Israeli security guards earlier today.
“The vast majority of Israeli citizens do not fall into Hamas’s trap. They know that we are fully committed to achieving the goals of the war, to eliminating Hamas, to bringing back all our hostages, to ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of today’s cabinet meeting, a day after Israel saw mass antigovernment protests accusing the PM of failing to reach a deal with Hamas to bring back captives from Gaza.
Israel closes all border crossings with Jordan after attack
The Israel Airport Authority has confirmed that all of the country’s crossings with Jordan have now been closed following an earlier attack at the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge between the occupied West Bank and Jordan.
A gunman arriving from Jordan killed three Israeli security guards before he was shot dead. It’s the first attack of its kind along the border with Jordan since the war on Gaza began, ratcheting up tensions across the region.
Crossing with Jordan ‘the only exit for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank’
As far as we know, the perpetrator came from the Jordanian side of the bridge. He was a truck driver, he got out of the truck, opened fire on the people there and killed three Israelis. People going to Jordan were returned and those who going to the occupied West Bank were sent back to Jordan.
Let’s not forget this is the only exit for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to the outer world. They don’t have an airport of their own, so what they do is fly out from Jordan. But before they do that, they have to cross three points – the Palestinian one, the Israeli one and then the Jordanian one.
We’ve also seen a video showing some Palestinian workers being detained as part of the security arrangements taking place here.
Israeli soldiers at the Allenby crossing between the West Bank and Jordan
Israeli media name 2 of 3 guards killed in Allenby crossing attack
Israeli newspapers Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post have identified two of the three guards of the shooting attack that took place earlier today at the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge on the border between the occupied West Bank and Jordan.
They are Yohanan Shchori, 61, from the illegal West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Efraim, and Yuri Birnbaum, 65, from the settlement of Na’ama. According to earlier reports, they worked as private security guards at the crossing.
The attack occurred at the commercial cargo area of the crossing, the only exit point for Palestinians in the West Bank to travel outside the occupied territory. The attacker reportedly approached from the Jordanian side.
