Three Israeli civilians were shot and killed at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan on Sunday, officials said.
The border agents were working at the Allenby Bridge Crossing when they were approached by a truck on the Jordanian side, with the driver opening fire and killing them, according to the Israeli military. The 39-year-old Jordanian driver was then shot dead by other guards, the Times of Israel reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the shooting as a terrorist attack that “murdered three of our citizens in cold blood.
“We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“The killers do not distinguish between us, they want to murder us all,” he said.
Israeli outlets have identified the slain border agents as Yohanan Shchori, 61; Yuri Birnbaum, 65, and Adrian Marcelo Podzamczer.
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The shooting triggered the border crossing to shut down, authorities said.
Officials in Jordan, a US ally and the second Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel, have yet to respond to the incident.
The deadly shooting is the latest in an uptick of violence plaguing the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas.
Israel has launched near-daily raids into areas housing Palestinian residents, with violence from and against Israeli settlers soaring.
The situation reached a boiling point two weeks ago when the IDF launched its largest raid in recent years in the West Bank, which included unleashing airstrikes on the occupied territory.
The operation saw the IDF kill more than a dozen terrorists allegedly living in the West Bank, with the attack sparking demonstrations against the Israeli military.
During one of the demonstrations Friday, American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was allegedly shot in the head by IDF soldiers, according to witnesses and Turkish authorities.
The shooting is being investigated by Israeli officials, with the woman’s family blaming the IDF and urging for an independent review.
With Post wires
