Army says shooting kills 3 Israeli guards at West Bank crossing

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said a truck driver opened fire Sunday at an Israeli border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan, killing three Israeli guards before being “eliminated” by security forces.

The deadly shooting at the Allenby Bridge crossing, also known as King Hussein Bridge crossing, comes amid surging violence in the West Bank, with major Israeli military raids and attacks by Palestinians.

The military said “a terrorist” reached the area of the crossing, in the Jordan Valley, in a truck “from Jordan”.

The driver “exited the truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces operating at the bridge”, a military statement said.

“Three Israeli civilians were pronounced dead as a result of the attack,” the military said, later clarifying to AFP that they were “working as security guards” and not part of the army or police forces.

The attacker was shot dead by forces, the military added.

Jordan’s interior ministry said authorities in Amman were “investigating the incident”, and a Jordanian security source told AFP that the crossing’s Jordanian side had been closed.

The crossing is the only international gateway for Palestinians from the West Bank that does not require entering Israel, which has occupied the territory since 1967.

Private security guards operate the crossing alongside Israeli security forces stationed there.

Israel’s emergency medical service Magen David Adom said earlier that three people had died of gunshot wounds at the crossing, in what police described as a shooting attack.

Israeli media reports said the assailant had opened fire at an inspection area.

The military said it had deployed soldiers to the scene of the shooting to “rule out the suspicion of the truck being rigged with explosives”.

Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

Since the Hamas October 7 attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank which Israel occupied in 1967, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

At least 23 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.

-AFP