Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday slammed what he called Iran's “axis of evil” after terror attacks at a border crossing in the West Bank and Jordan left three Israelis dead.
“It is a difficult day. Despicable terrorists have murdered three of our citizens in cold blood on Allenby Bridge. On behalf of my government, I offer my condolences to the victims' families,” Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting on Sunday. “We are surrounded by a brutal ideology led by Iran's axis of evil. Despicable terrorists recently killed six hostages and three Israeli police officers in cold blood. These killers make no distinction between us, they want to kill all of us until the last one is left. There is no distinction between right and left, secular and religious, Jew and non-Jew.”
The Israeli army said a gunman approached the Allenby Bridge crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire on Israeli security forces, leading to the gunman being shot dead in a shootout. The three dead were Israeli civilians. The Israeli Magen David Adom rescue team said all three were men in their 50s.
Jordan, a Western-allied Arab country with a large Palestinian population, is investigating the shooting, the country's state news agency Petra reported.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a press conference in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024. (OHAD ZWIGENBERG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri praised the attack and linked the shooting to Israel's attacks on Gaza.
“We expect to see many more such actions in the future,” he said, according to Reuters.
It was the first attack at the Jordan-Jordan border crossing since Hamas terrorists attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians. An additional 250 people were taken to Gaza as hostages, of which Hamas currently holds about 100. About a third of the hostages remaining in Gaza are believed to be dead.
“What prevents our people from being eliminated as they have been in the past is the strength of the State of Israel and the strength of the IDF,” Netanyahu continued Sunday. “The heroism of our soldiers, policemen and security forces men and women, the supreme sacrifice of our fallen heroes, and the resilience of our people – that determines everything. If we are united, our enemies cannot be united. That is why their main goal is to divide us, to sow divisions among us.”
“The German newspaper Bild has published an official Hamas document revealing its plan of action: to sow divisions among us, wage psychological warfare against the hostages' families, put political pressure on the Israeli government from within and without, tear us apart from the inside and continue the war until further notice, until Israel is defeated,” Netanyahu said over the weekend.
Israeli police stand guard near the scene of a deadly shooting that Israeli authorities said left three people shot dead on the Allenby Bridge, which connects the West Bank with Jordan, Sunday, September 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Irian)
“The vast majority of Israelis will not fall into the Hamas trap,” the prime minister said. “They know that we are committed to our war objectives: to destroy Hamas, to return all hostages, to ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel, and to allow the people of the north and south to return safely to their homes.”
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“We will rise together, we will defend the bond of David together, and with God's help we will prevail,” Netanyahu said. “And finally, some ask, 'Are you going to hold the sword forever?' In the Middle East, there is no eternity without the sword.”
The Allenby crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is used primarily by Palestinians, international tourists and cargo. There have been few security incidents at the crossing over the years, but in 2014, an Israeli guard shot and killed a Jordanian judge who he claimed was attacking them, The Associated Press reported.
Israeli soldiers stand guard near the scene of a shooting on the Allenby Bridge, which connects the West Bank with Jordan, on Sunday, September 8, 2024. Israeli authorities say three people were shot dead in the incident. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Irian)
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.
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Israeli and Jordanian authorities said the crossing would be closed until further notice, and Israel later announced it was closing both its land crossings with Jordan, at Beit She'an in the north and near Eilat in the south.
Fox News reporter Yael Rotem Kriel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
