Jordan receives body of West Bank crossing attacker from Israel

Jordan announced on Thursday that it had received from Israel the body of Abdul Mutallib Al-Qaisi, who last September carried out an attack on Israeli soldiers at the Karama Crossing (also known as the King Hussein or Allenby Crossing) between Jordan and the West Bank.

The attack resulted in the killing of two Israelis and Al-Qaisi was shot dead by Israeli security forces.

The official Jordan News Agency Petra quoted the spokesperson for the Jordanian Foreign Ministry, Fuad Al-Majali, as saying that “the ministry followed up, in coordination with the relevant Jordanian authorities, the process of releasing the body of the citizen Abdul-Muttalib Al-Qaisi and securing its return to Jordan.”

Al-Majali explained that “the body was received via the King Hussein Bridge and handed over to his family for burial in Jordan.”

Al-Qaisi was driving an aid truck heading to the Gaza Strip, which was then suffering horrific Israeli airstrikes and bombing, when he carried out the attack on September 18, opening fire on two Israelis and killing them.

He had been working as a driver for three months before the attack.

Over two years of genocidal war since October 2023, Israel has allowed the entry of very limited aid to the Gaza Strip.

However, a famine broke out in the territory amid the war, with hundreds of people dying of starvation and thousands more killed as they desperately tried to obtain food from aid sites run by the US and Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is now defunct.

Many aid trucks were looted by gangs whose activities Israel encouraged.

Al-Qaisi’s attack was the second of its kind amid the Gaza War, with another Jordanian driver shooting dead three Israelis at the same crossing in September 2024, before being killed by Israeli forces.