Why has Israel closed the West Bank’s crossing with Jordan? | Occupied West Bank News

The only crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank – the King Hussein Bridge, also known as the Allenby Bridge – has been closed by Israel.

Israel also closed two of its own crossings with Jordan on Sunday: the Wadi Araba Crossing, or Yitzhak Rabin Crossing, near Eilat, Israel, and Aqaba, Jordan, both on the Red Sea, and the Jordan River Crossing near Beit She’an, Israel, and Irbid, Jordan.

Jordan also closed the crossings from its side on Sunday and Monday.

The closures came after a shooting on Sunday when a Jordanian truck driver killed three members of Israel’s security forces.

The driver was killed shortly after by an Israeli security guard. Israel reopened the border crossings for passenger traffic on Monday morning, but they remained closed to cargo trucks.

What do we know?

The shooter was identified as Maher Dyab Hussein al-Jazi, a Jordanian citizen from the Maan governorate south of the capital, Amman.

He shot the Israeli security members with a handgun, according to The Times of Israel. His brother Shady al-Jazi told a Jordanian news outlet that his brother would regularly cross the border to offload his truck and return to Jordan.

But lately, “seeing all the killing in Gaza … could motivate him,” Shady al-Jazi said in the televised interview.

Al-Jazi’s actions “reflect the widespread rage against Israel in Jordanian society”, Sean Yom – an expert on Jordan at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the author of From Resilience to Revolution – told Al Jazeera.

He was “not an Islamist, an Iranian agent or trained terrorist”, Yom said. He added that the “violence may be predicated upon the horrific images of Gaza saturating the Jordanian public sphere right now”.

Israeli and Jordanian officials are still investigating.

Is this going to lead to more attacks?

Experts say no.

“It’s definitely a one-off because Jordanian authorities have the [Muslim] Brotherhood and other mainstream sources of anti-Israeli fervour under tight control, especially with the elections in a couple of days,” Yom said, referring to Tuesday’s general election.

“But they can’t control every voice of anger.”

Will this impact Jordan’s parliamentary elections?

Not likely.

The incident has neither changed any of the campaign platforms nor do analysts expect it to impact turnout.

What about imports and exports?

Every day, dozens of trucks cross from Jordan to the occupied West Bank. The goods that move across the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge in particular fill both Palestinian markets in the West Bank and Israeli markets. Israel exported about $9.1m worth of goods to Jordan and imported $42.4m in July.

Both figures are higher than they were in the same period in 2023.

Who uses the bridge crossing?

Palestinians and tourists can cross although Palestinians must line up in different lines than the tourists.

It is the only way Palestinians can leave the occupied West Bank to travel anywhere. Israeli citizens cannot pass through here. They go to the Yitzhak Rabin or Jordan River crossings.

How did Israel react to the shooting?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to connect it to Iran.

In his weekly government meeting, Netanyahu said Israel is “surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil”.

Other Israeli officials called al-Jazi a “terrorist”.

“The terrorist shot dead three employees of the Allenby terminal at close range,” Alex Chen, the manager of the crossing, told CNN.

What about Jordan?

Sufian Qudah, spokesman for Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, posted on X that the shooting was an “individual attack”.

He added that the ministry rejected violence and called for “addressing all causes and escalatory steps that generate it”.

He then spoke of the need for an end to “continued Israeli aggression in Gaza” and its “dangerous escalation” in the West Bank.