Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu He blasted what he called Iran’s “axis of evil” in comments on Sunday after a terrorist attack on the West Bank-Jordan border crossing killed three Israelis.
“It is a difficult day. A despicable terrorist murdered three of our citizens in cold blood on the Allenby Bridge. On behalf of the government, I send my condolences to the families of the victims,” Netanyahu said at the start of his cabinet meeting on Sunday. “We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil. In recent days, despicable terrorists have murdered six of our hostages and three Israeli police officers in cold blood. The killers don’t discriminate between us, they want to kill us all, down to the last one; Right and left, secular and religious, Jews and non-Jews.
The Israeli military said a gunman drove up in a truck from the Jordanian side near the Allenby Bridge crossing and opened fire on Israeli security forces, who killed the attacker in the crossfire. It said the three people killed were Israeli citizens. Israel’s Magen David Adom Rescue Service said they were all men in their 50s.
Jordan, a Western-allied Arab country with a large Palestinian population, is investigating the shooting, its state-run Petra news agency reported.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri celebrated the attack, linking the shooting to Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
“We expect many more similar actions,” he said, according to Reuters.
It was the first attack of its kind on the West Bank-Jordan border crossing since Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an October 7 attack in southern Israel. Another 250 people were taken hostage in Gaza, and Hamas still holds about 100 of them. A third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.
“What prevents us from exterminating our people as in the past is the strength of the State of Israel and the strength of the Israel Defense Forces,” Netanyahu continued Sunday. “The heroic spirit of soldiers, policemen, men and women of our security forces, the supreme sacrifice of our martyred heroes and the resilience of our people – that’s what makes the difference. While we stand together – our enemies cannot, so their main goal is to divide us, to sow division within us.”
Over the weekend, Netanyahu noted, “German newspaper Bild published an official Hamas document that outlines its plan of action: to sow division within us, to wage psychological warfare on the hostages’ families, to exert internal and external political pressure on. The Israeli government will continue the war until further notice to isolate us from within and until Israel is defeated.
“The majority of Israeli citizens do not fall into this trap of Hamas,” the prime minister said. “They know that we are committed with all our might to achieving the goals of the war – to eliminate Hamas, to return all our hostages, to ensure that Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel, and to return our residents to the north safely. And to their homes. to the south.”
“We will stand together, we will hold together the link of David, and with God’s help we will win,” Netanyahu said. “And finally, some ask – ‘Will you hold the sword forever?’ In the Middle East, there is no eternity without a sword.”
Allenby Crossing the Jordan RiverAlso known as the King Hussein Bridge, it is mainly used by Palestinians and international tourists as well as cargo shipments. The crossing has seen few security incidents over the years, but in 2014 Israeli security guards shot and killed a Jordanian judge who said they had assaulted him, the Associated Press reported.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.
Israeli and Jordanian authorities said the crossing was closed until further notice, and Israel later announced the closure of both of its land crossings with Jordan, near Beit Shean in the north and Eilat in the south.
Fox News’ Yale Rotem-Kuril and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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