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A Jordanian lorry driver shot dead three Israelis at the Allenby border crossing between the kingdom and the occupied West Bank on Sunday.
The assailant, who arrived in a lorry from Jordan, opened fire at the Israeli terminal before he was shot dead, the Israeli army said in a social media post.
Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service said it had treated three men, all in their 50s, who were in serious condition. All three were later pronounced dead.
The army said it was checking the lorry for explosives.
It is the first attack of its kind reported at the crossing, which is the main border route between Jordan and the West Bank, and the only land route for Palestinians in the West Bank to travel abroad.
Another Jordanian lorry driver at the site said the assailant had used a smuggled pistol to shoot a forklift operator and a loading worker at the crossing’s customs area.
“The Israelis ordered all of us to lay on the ground, hands outstretched,” the witness told The National.
Sources in Amman identified the assailant as Samaat Karaki, of the Awadat tribe.
Jordan’s Interior Ministry has opened an investigation into the incident.
The Jordanian side of the crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, has now been closed, Jordanian sources said.
The crossing is mostly used by Palestinians and foreign tourists, and is also a major trade route for cargo from Jordan.
While Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994, Amman has been fiercely critical of Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian territories, and has regularly condemned Israeli leaders in recent months over the war in Gaza, settler attacks in the West Bank, and ministers’ pledges to allow Jewish worship at Al Aqsa Mosque.
The Allenby crossing has also been used by humanitarian aid lorries heading towards Gaza.
In May, Jordan said some of its lorries were attacked by Israeli settlers while travelling to the Karam Abu Salem crossing between Israel and Gaza.
Amman administers Jerusalem’s holy sites, and has regularly warned Israel to reject calls from some ministers to change a status-quo agreement between the two countries.
The attack at the border crossing comes amid widespread anger among Jordanians against Israel for its conduct in the Gaza war, and accusations that authorities have not done enough to support Palestinians.
The leaders of Hamas, the Iran-backed militant group that governs Gaza, were expelled from Jordan in the late 1990s, on suspicion that they were undermining national security.