Middle East updates: 3 killed at West Bank-Jordan border
Published September 8, 2024last updated September 8, 2024
What you need to know
- Israeli medics say three people have been shot dead at a West Bank border crossing to Jordan
- Hezbollah says it has fired rockets at an Israeli town after an alleged Israeli attack
Here are the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas war and news from the wider Middle East region on September 8:
Israeli airstrike kills senior rescue official: Palestinian officials
An Israeli airstrike has killed Mohammed Morsi, the deputy director of the Gaza Civil Emergency Service in the north of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian health officials said Sunday.
The strike on his house in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp also killed four members of his family, according to the officials.
In a statement, the Civil Emergency Service said 83 of its members have now been killed by Israeli fire since October 7.
There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strike.
3 killed near West Bank border crossing: Israeli medics
Israel's emergency service has said three people had been shot and killed near the Allenby Bridge Crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan on Sunday morning.
"We found three men lying unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing, with gunshot wounds. Together with the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] medical team, we performed resuscitation efforts, but unfortunately, we had to declare their deaths on scene," said a statement from the Magen David Adom emergency service.
Israeli police said separately that an attacker had been "neutralized" and that there had been a "shooting attack."
The Israeli military said a gunman approached the crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed the assailant in a gunfight. It said the three people killed were Israeli civilians.
The military later clarified that the three men were "working as security guards" and were not members of the army or police force.
The border crossing is used by Palestinians, Israelis and international tourists.
Authorities in Israel and Jordan 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.
The occupied West Bank has seen a rise in violence since the October 7 terror attacks by Hamas on Israel, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
The incidents include Israeli raids into Palestinian residential areas, Palestinian attacks on Israelis and attacks by Jewish settlers targeting Palestinians.
Hezbollah launches retaliatory rocket attack on Israeli town
The Lebanese Hezbollah militia said Sunday it had launched rockets at the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona early in the day, partly in response to an attack that killed emergency workers in the village of Froun a day earlier.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said three emergency responders were killed and two others wounded, one of them critically, in the strike on Saturday, which it has blamed on Israel.
For its part, the Israeli military said it had "eliminated terrorists" from the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement in Froun.
It also said on Sunday that it had carried out a number of airstrikes on "Hezbollah military structures" after intercepting projectiles launched from Lebanon.
The military said in a statement that the Israeli air force targeted sites "in the areas of Aitaroun, Maroun El Ras, and Yaroun in southern Lebanon."
The situation at the Lebanese-Israeli border has been escalating steadily in recent months, with tens of thousands displaced on both sides amid cross-border attacks between the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel.
tj/nm (Reuters, AFP)