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Shooting at border crossing between West Bank and Jordan kills three Israelis – ABC 6 News

ALLENBY CROSSING, West Bank (AP) — Three Israelis were shot dead Sunday at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Israeli officials said, in an apparent attack linked to the 11-month war in the Gaza Strip.

The military said the gunman drove a truck from the Jordanian side toward the Allenby Bridge crossing and opened fire on Israeli security forces, who killed the attacker in a shootout. It said the three people killed were Israeli civilians. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said they were all men in their 50s.

Jordan is investigating the shooting, the state news agency Petra reported. 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.

The Allenby Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is used mainly by Palestinians and international tourists, as well as for the transport of goods. Over the years, there have been very few security incidents at this crossing, but in 2014, Israeli security forces shot dead a Jordanian judge who allegedly assaulted them.

Authorities in Israel and Jordan said the border crossing was closed until further notice. Israel later announced the closure of its two land crossings with Jordan near Beit Shean in the north and Eilat in the south.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and linked it to Israel's broader conflict with Iran and allied militant groups, including Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a rise in violence since the October 7 Hamas attack from Gaza that sparked the war there. Israel has carried out almost daily military raids on densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods, and settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also increased.

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike in Gaza early Sunday killed five people, including two women, two children and a senior official of the Civil Defense Force, a first responder force under the Hamas government.

The Civil Defense said the attack targeted the home of its deputy director for northern Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, in the city's Jabaliya refugee camp.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The army says it is trying to avoid civilians and is only attacking militants.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. The count does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The war has caused enormous destruction and around 90 percent of Gaza's 2.3 million inhabitants have had to flee their homes, often several times.

In their attack on southern Israel on October 7, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. They kidnapped another 250 and are still holding about 100 of them, having released most of the others in exchange for Palestinians Israel held during a week-long ceasefire last November. About a third of the remaining hostages in Gaza are believed dead.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been trying for months to broker a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, but the negotiations keep stalling.

In the 1967 Middle East war, Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – territories that the Palestinians claim for a future state. Israel withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but retained control of the airspace, coast and most land crossings. It imposed a blockade on Gaza with Egypt after Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

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Melzer reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Follow AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

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