The Allenby Bridge Crossing between Israel and Jordan reopened to pedestrians on Monday morning but remained closed to trucks after Amman released a meager condemnation of a Sunday terror attack by a Jordanian truck driver at the crossing in which he murdered three Israelis. The killings were celebrated on the streets of the Jordanian capital.
| The murderer was identified by Israeli authorities as Maher Dhiab Hussein al-Jazi, 39, a Jordanian national from the southern Jordan town of Udhruh, east of Petra |
The crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is the West Bank’s sole crossing with Jordan.
According to the report, the two sides discussed how to improve security conditions at the border crossing and shared information that could help with the investigation into the attack, as cooperation between the two nations continues.
However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable...
it took some 14 hours for Jordan’s Foreign Ministry to issue a statement containing a brief condemnation of the terror shooting attack.
The ministry stressed "Jordan’s firm position rejecting and condemning violence and targeting civilians for any reason."
The rest of the statement reiterated common talking points in support of the two-state solution and against Israel’s actions in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about
oppressionand
disproportionate response...
and the West Bank, with the condemnation of the attack immediately followed by a call for "addressing all causes and escalatory steps that generate" violence against civilians.
The ministry added that its probes have so far concluded that the attack was carried out by a lone assailant. Terror groups Hamas
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
both welcomed the attack, but did not take responsibility.
While the ministry issued its tepid statement, thousands of Jordanians celebrated on the streets of Amman, claiming the gunman had avenged the deaths of thousands of Paleostinians in the war in Gaza.
Videos posted to social media showed fireworks being set off during the demonstration. People waved Jordanian flags, and there were reports of Israeli flags being burned at the event.
Three Israelis, Yohanan Shchori, 61, Yuri Birnbaum, 65, and Adrian Marcelo Podzamczer, were murdered at the crossing on Sunday by Maher Dhiab Hussein al-Jazi, 39, a Jordanian national from the southern Jordan town of Udhruh, east of Petra.
According to the military and Israel Airports Authority officials — the latter of which manages the land crossing — al-Jazi got out of the truck he was driving during an inspection at the terminal and shot up several of the crossing’s workers, killing three.
Israeli security guards returned fire at the terrorist, killing him.
Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994 and have close security ties. Dozens of trucks cross daily from Jordan, with goods from Jordan and the Gulf that supply both the West Bank and Israeli markets.
Jordan said to have thwarted plot to detonate boobytrapped truck at Allenby Bridge 6 weeks ago
[IsraelTimes] Jordanian intelligence some six weeks ago thwarted a plan to place explosives on a truck and detonate it at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, Channel 12 reports.
The report, which cites non-Israeli sources, comes a day after a Jordanian truck driver rubbed out three Israelis in a terrorist attack at the Allenby crossing.
Jordanian intelligence officials arrested four members of a cell in Salt, west of Amman a month and a half ago, the report says, and they led the officials to a weapons lab in which several bombs were found. Jordanian intelligence suspects the members of the cell intended to plant the devices on a truck and detonate it at the Allenby Bridge crossing.
The alleged Death Eaters were all Jordanian nationals, and the cell was formed locally, rather than being recruited by Iran, Hezbollah or other external forces.
Jordan did not publicize the incident in order to avoid triggering public protests, given anti-Israeli sentiment in the kingdom and anger that Jordan cooperates with Israel on security matters.
Channel 12 notes that Israeli sappers were seen checking the truck driven by the button men yesterday for more than an hour after the deadly attack to make sure it was not rigged with explosives.
The TV report notes that Jordan has also busted at least three cells in the past two months, recruited by Hezbollah via the internet, that were intended to carry out actions designed to destabilize the kingdom.
It notes that in June, Jordanian security forces announced they had uncovered and detonated explosives hidden in a commercial warehouse in an industrial area southeast of the capital Amman that they said was part of an Iran-linked plot to destabilize Jordan. That incident, Channel 12 says, involved "immense" quantities of explosives smuggled into Jordan by Iran.
It says Hezbollah has also been recruiting, via the internet, Paleostinian cells in the northern West Bank — including Nablus, Jenin, and Tulkarm — also intended to act against Jordan.