Israel shut the sole gateway between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan on Friday, a day after a driver bringing humanitarian aid from Jordan to Gaza opened fire and killed two Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli Airports Authority, which operates the Allenby Bridge (also known as the King Hussein Bridge) crossing, said it would remain closed until further notice, cutting the West Bank off from outside access. Two other crossings between Israel and Jordan were also affected: the Jordan River crossing in the north was closed, while the Rabin crossing in the south stayed open only for workers.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the Allenby Bridge attack, a key trade route between Jordan and Israel and the only exit point for more than three million Palestinians in the West Bank to reach Jordan and the wider world.
Also on Friday, Israeli forces stormed the town of Sarda, north of Ramallah, surrounding a house and setting it on fire after firing an anti-tank grenade. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, a young man, Abdullah Mahmoud Rimawi, had barricaded himself inside before eventually surrendering.
Local sources said Israeli forces had pursued Rimawi for days and detained his parents during a raid on the family home in Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, to pressure him to give himself up.
Israeli forces also raided the town of Beitunia, west of Ramallah, breaking into several shops after prying their doors open. They also surrounded a house and arrested another young man, Mundher al-Shafi‘i.
Elsewhere in the northern West Bank, Israeli forces arrested six Palestinians in Nablus early Friday. They raided homes in the towns of Burqin and Arraba near Jenin, severely beating a doctor during a search of a house in the latter. He had to be hospitalised.
Israel says it thwarted rocket attack
The Israeli army, the Shin Bet security agency, and the Yamam ‘counter-terror’ unit said they had also arrested a group in Ramallah late Thursday, alleging that its members had recently tried to launch a rocket toward Israeli targets and that shells were found at the site.
According to the army, three suspects were detained after shots were fired when the building was surrounded, and “dozens of rockets, explosive devices, and explosive materials” were discovered. A workshop for producing rockets was also reportedly seized in the Ramallah area.
Israeli forces have intensified operations across the West Bank in recent days. The army announced Friday that 75 Palestinians had been arrested this week alone.
With the Jewish holiday season approaching, forces have been deployed to protect Israeli settlements, roads, and other strategic areas, and have raided dozens of Palestinian villages. Among those detained were 10 people from Qabatiya, 13 from Bethlehem, and nine from the Tulkarm and Salfit areas, with the army claiming to have seized weapons and ammunition.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir seized on the incidents to call for dismantling President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority.
“The Palestinian Authority is a terrorist entity, training to carry out an operation similar to October 7 in the West Bank, paying salaries to those who kill Jews, raising its children to slaughter Jews, and inciting terrorism through its media. If we do not dismantle it in time, we will wake up too late, as happened in Gaza,” the extremist minister said.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar echoed the warning, calling the events “further proof of the great danger in establishing a Palestinian state. If Israel does not maintain security control over Judea and Samaria [an Israeli term for the West Bank], the entire State of Israel will be in danger.”
In recent months, several Western countries—including France, Britain, Canada, and Australia—have indicated that they plan to recognise a Palestinian state soon amid growing international outrage over Israel’s war on Gaza.
Reuters contributed to this report.