GAZA: A truck driver shot dead three Zionist guards at a border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan Sunday before being “eliminated”, the Zionist 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 Zionist raids and attacks by Palestinians, and against the backdrop of the Zionist war in Gaza, now in its 12th month.

The military said the assailant 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 (Zionist) security forces operating at the bridge”, a military statement said. “Three (Zionist) 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.

Hamas praised the attack but did not claim responsibility for it, adding it “affirms the Arab peoples’ rejection of the (Zionist) 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 the Zionist entity, which has occupied the territory since 1967.

Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza. The Zionist military on Aug 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 Oct 7, Zionist troops or settlers have killed at least 662 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The Zionist offensive in Gaza has so far killed at least 40,972 people, mostly women and children. On Sunday, the Zionist entity pounded Gaza with air strikes and shelling as prospects remained dim for a ceasefire. Gaza’s civil defense agency said nearly a dozen people were killed in Zionist air strikes on Sunday, including five in Jabalia refugee camp.

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. “We are displaced under heavy bombardments... I have lost weight and I’m exhausted.”

Hamas is demanding a complete Zionist withdrawal from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal, but the Zionist entity insists troops must remain along the Gaza-Egypt border. The United States, Qatar and Egypt have all been mediating in efforts to forge a ceasefire. Zionist protesters numbering in the tens of thousands have mounted pressure on the government, demanding a deal that would mean the release of captives.

International pressure to end the war has also intensified after Friday’s fatal shooting in the West Bank of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was demonstrating against Zionist settlements in the territory. Her family, Turkey and the UN rights office all said Zionist forces killed her. - AFP