The closure of the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge is the most recent in a protracted line of collective punishments imposed by Israeli forces.
Israel has ordered the indefinite closure of the King Hussein Bridge, also referred to as the Allenby Bridge, stopping the passage of products and other people by the one gateway between the occupied West Financial institution and Jordan, Palestinian authorities say.
Israel will shut the bridge crossing beginning on Wednesday till additional discover, the Palestinian Normal Authority for Borders and Crossings stated on Tuesday. The Jordanian Public Safety Directorate additionally introduced the closure, saying the crossing was being shut “to passenger and cargo site visitors by the opposite facet till additional discover”.
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The crossing, which is virtually the one exit and entry level for Palestinians wishing to journey exterior the West Financial institution, was opened on Sunday after it was temporarily closed following a lethal assault.
A Jordanian nationwide travelling in a humanitarian aid truck killed two Israeli troopers on the Israeli-controlled crossing final week. Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, claimed duty for the taking pictures.
‘Countermeasure to recognition of Palestinian statehood’
Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Sahut, reporting from Jordan’s capital, Amman, stated: “There are a number of questions up within the air as to why [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has determined to shut the border solely.”
“Some inside Israeli media are studying it as one of many first countermeasures Israel is taking because of many international locations within the worldwide neighborhood recognising a Palestinian state,” stated Sahut, who’s reporting from Amman as a result of Israel’s authorities has banned Al Jazeera from reporting inside Israel and the West Financial institution.
The crossing within the Jordan Valley, often known as Karama on the Palestinian facet, is the one worldwide gateway for Palestinians from the West Financial institution that doesn’t require getting into Israel, which has occupied the territory since 1967.
Final week’s assault left Palestinians on edge as Israeli forces began a campaign of collective punishment, ordering the suspects’ houses within the West Financial institution demolished and their neighbours’ work permits revoked.
Every week earlier than the assault on the bridge, Israeli forces detained more than 100 Palestinians in raids within the West Bank city of Tulkarem and imposed a curfew.
Palestinians should navigate a whole bunch of checkpoints and are sometimes frisked by Israeli troopers whereas travelling contained in the West Financial institution, making their day by day actions a harrowing and humiliating expertise, campaigners stated.
Because the world’s focus has been on Israel’s genocidal conflict on Gaza prior to now two years, Israel has launched a crackdown on the West Financial institution, killing greater than 1,000 Palestinians there, arresting hundreds, and demolishing a whole bunch of houses and civic infrastructure. Even earlier than the October 7, 2023, assault inside Israel by Hamas-led Palestinian teams, Israeli navy and settler violence was at its highest degree in years.
Netanyahu and members of his cupboard have pledged to annex the West Financial institution regardless of worldwide requires the institution of a Palestinian state as a part of a two-state answer.
However Netanyahu final week stated there “will be no Palestinian state” as he introduced a brand new settlement growth on Palestinian land. Settlements, that are unlawful below worldwide legislation, are an enormous hurdle to the realisation of a sovereign Palestinian state.
On Monday, France joined 4 different international locations to recognise Palestinian statehood. Australia, Canada, Portugal and the UK formally made the transfer to recognise Palestine a day earlier.
With greater than 80 % of the worldwide neighborhood now recognising the state of Palestine, diplomatic strain has ramped up on Israel because it continues the conflict on Gaza, the place greater than 65,300 Palestinians have been killed and the enclave has been became rubble.
