Unlock the Editor’s Digest free of charge
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Three Israelis had been killed after a Jordanian gunman opened fireplace on safety personnel on the border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Financial institution, Israel’s navy mentioned on Sunday.
The capturing is the primary such incident on the border between Jordan and the West Financial institution because the warfare between Israel and Hamas in Gaza erupted final yr, fanning tensions throughout the Center East.
The Israeli navy mentioned the gunman had approached Allenby Bridge, also called King Hussein Bridge, in a truck from the Jordanian facet, earlier than opening fireplace at Israeli forces who had been working on the crossing.
An Israeli official mentioned the gunman was a Jordanian citizen. Jordan’s state-run Petra Information Company mentioned he was a resident of the Al-Hussainiya space in Ma’an Governorate, a restive area within the south of the nation.
Three Israeli civilians had been killed within the assault, in keeping with the navy. Israel’s paramedic service mentioned all three of the deceased had been males. The assailant was shot lifeless by Israeli forces.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the assault, and Israel’s airports authority mentioned that each Allenby Bridge — the one hyperlink between the West Financial institution and Jordan — and the land crossings between Israel and Jordan could be closed till additional discover.
Israeli forces additionally closed the northern and southern entrances to Jericho, the closest West Financial institution metropolis to the Allenby crossing, and had been finishing up checks on autos, in keeping with the Palestinian information company Wafa.
Benny Gantz, the chief of considered one of Israel’s primary opposition events, mentioned the incident was “one other signal” that Israel wanted to strengthen its “line of defense” within the Jordan valley.
Jordan’s inside ministry mentioned the nation had launched an investigation into the capturing.
Jordan grew to become the second Arab nation after Egypt to ascertain diplomatic relations with Israel when the 2 sides signed a peace treaty in 1994. The dominion co-operates with Israel on safety issues. It was a part of a world coalition that helped Israel to fend off an Iranian missile barrage earlier this yr.
Nevertheless, the hovering Palestinian loss of life toll from the warfare in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’s devastating October 7 assault on Israel, has strained relations between the 2 nations. Jordan has a big Palestinian inhabitants that has led to protests in opposition to the warfare.
Jordan’s King Abdullah has condemned Hamas’s assault, throughout which militants killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 250 hostage, in keeping with Israeli figures.
However officers in Amman have additionally been fiercely important of the devastation wrought by Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza, which has to this point killed greater than 40,800 Palestinians, in keeping with native well being officers, and fuelled a humanitarian disaster within the coastal enclave.
Earlier this yr, King Abdullah’s son, Crown Prince Hussein, decried the failure of the worldwide group to cease the preventing, and accused the Israeli authorities of “escalating the state of affairs within the West Financial institution as effectively and making an attempt to tug the area right into a regional warfare”.
Tensions within the West Financial institution have risen sharply because the begin of the warfare in Gaza, and final week Israeli forces launched their greatest operation within the occupied territory for years.
