The shooting is the first such attack to take place on the Jordanian border crossing in 27 years.
Jordan’s three land border crossings to Israel have been shut down after a Jordanian man shot and killed three Israeli security guards at the Allenby Border crossing.
The assailant, identified as 39-year-old Maher al-Jazi, carried out the Sunday shooting in a commercial cargo offloading area controlled by the Israel Airports Authority before he was shot dead by Israeli security forces.
Israel then arrested multiple Jordanian truck drivers at the crossing, which connects Jordan to the occupied West Bank, and is also referred to as the King Hussein Bridge or the Al-Karameh Border Crossing.
The shooting is the first such attack to take place on the Jordanian border in 27 years.
The border crossing, which is regularly used by Palestinian from the West Bank as their sole outlet for international travel, has been closed from both directions until further noticed.
Since the attack, the remaining border crossings, namely the Sheikh Hussein Crossing and the Wadi Araba/Yitzhak Rabin Crossing, have also ceased all movement according to Jordanian media.
Palestinians on course to Jordan have been forced to turn back to the city of Jericho. Israeli occupation forces have also imposed a security cordon around Jericho, according to Jordan’s Roya News.
The Jordanian Ministry of Interior announced the country’s authorities have begun investigating the shooting incident.
The Palestinian movement Hamas praised the shooting attack.
“The Karameh crossing operation is an affirmation of the Arab peoples’ rejection of the occupation, its crimes, and its ambitions in Palestine and Jordan, and their strong support for our people and their valiant resistance in defence of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa,” it said in a press release.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the shooting during his weekly address to Israel’s Cabinet.
“This is a difficult day. An abhorrent terrorist murdered three of our citizens in cold blood at the Allenby Bridge,” the prime minister said. “On behalf of the government and myself, I send condolences to the families of those who were murdered.”
