AFP, Palestinian Territories

A truck driver shot dead three Israeli guards at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan yesterday before being “eliminated”, Israel’s military said, as it pounded Gaza with new strikes.

The rare attack at the Allenby Bridge crossing comes amid soaring violence in the West Bank with major Israeli raids and attacks by Palestinians, and against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas Gaza war, now in its 12th month.

The military said “a terrorist” reached the crossing area, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, in a truck “from Jordan”.

The driver “exited the truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces operating at the bridge”, a military statement said.

“Three Israeli civilians were pronounced dead as a result of the attack,” it said, clarifying to AFP that they were “security guards” and not in the army or police.

The attacker was shot dead, the military added, without providing his identity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the assailant as a “despicable terrorist” inspired by “a murderous ideology” which he said was fuelled by Iran.

Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility for it, adding it “affirms the Arab peoples’ rejection of the (Israeli) occupation, its crimes, and its ambitions in Palestine and Jordan”.

Jordan’s interior ministry said authorities were “investigating the incident”.

The crossing, in the Jordan Valley, is the only international gateway for Palestinians from the West Bank that does not require entering Israel, which has occupied the territory since 1967.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza.

Israel’s military on August 28 launched simultaneous raids across several cities and refugee camps in the northern West Bank, killing at least 36 Palestinians, according to the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry.

Since October 7 last year, Israel’s offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 40,972 people, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

The UN human rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Yesterday, Israel pounded Gaza with air strikes and shelling as prospects remained dim for a ceasefire.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said nearly a dozen people were killed in Israeli air strikes yesterday, including five in Jabalia refugee camp.

The Israeli military said it had struck around “25 Hamas targets” across Gaza over the past day.

There has been no respite for the 2.4 million Palestinians living in Gaza, almost all of whom have been displaced at least once.

“Moving from one area to another is distressing because there is no safe place in Gaza,” said Raeed Hamad, 51, a cancer patient from the southern city of Khan Yunis.