Jordan says attack on border with Israel was an "individual action"

The Jordanian Interior Ministry said the terrorist attack at the border crossing allenby, connecting Jordan with Israel, in which three Israelis were killed was the result of "individual action," according to preliminary investigations.

"Preliminary investigations indicate that the incident is an individual act," the government department said in a statement, adding that "inquiries are continuing to ascertain all the details of the incident."

According to these initial investigations, the author of the attack on the other side of the King Hussein Bridge - as the Allenby Pass is known in Jordan - is a Jordanian citizen named Maher Ziab Hussein al Yazi, a resident of the Al Husainiya area in the Maan province in the southwest of the country, who crossed the bridge driving a truck loaded with commercial goods from Jordan into Israeli territory, more precisely in the area of ​​Judea and Samaria (West Bank).

In the statement, the ministry said it is coordinating with the relevant authorities to receive the body of the Jordanian terrorist for burial in Jordan.

He also said that all Jordanian drivers who were detained for questioning after the incident have been released and that more than 100 trucks have returned to the Jordanian kingdom.

The Allenby land crossing was closed after the attack, as were all other border crossings from Israel into Jordan.

The ministry added that it is closely following the closure of the bridge following the attack and that no date has yet been announced for its reopening to trade and passengers.

According to an IDF statement, a terrorist got out of the truck and opened fire with a revolver at Israeli workers working at the cargo terminal at the border crossing. The attacker was eventually shot dead by security forces at the scene.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and pointed to the Iran-led “Axis of Evil,” a reference to terrorist groups associated with the Islamic Republic, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank, Yemen’s Houthis, the “Islamic Resistance” in Iraq and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli victims were identified as Yohanan Shchori, 61, father of six children, residing in Maale Efraim; Yuri Birnbaum, 65, father of three children, residing in Naama; and Adrian Marcelo Podmesser, also of Argentine citizenship, father of four children, residing in Ariel.

Agencies contributed to this Aurora article