The Israeli-Jewish Conflict in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian-Israel War in the Light of Israel’s First Day of Intifad Action
A shooting by a Jordanian citizen that killed three Israelis on Sunday at a heavily fortified West Bank border crossing came after three recent attempts by Palestinian militants, including from Hamas, to set off car bombs in the territory. Last month, Hamas and its ally, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, claimed an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in which the Israeli police said the assailant had come from the West Bank. Less than two weeks later, a drive-by shooting killed three Israeli police officers in the southern West Bank.
The Petra News Agency said that Jordan was investigating the shooting. The Arab country made peace with Israel in 1994 but is very critical of the policies of the Palestinians. There are many Palestinians in Jordan and they have protested against Israel over the war in Gaza.
The escalation comes as Israel struggles to contain wider battles not only in Gaza but also with Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, as well as with their benefactor, Iran. These animosities, including in the West Bank, long preceded the war in Gaza, but they have intensified since the latest Hamas-Israel war began in October, and are unlikely to ebb until the sides reach a truce in Gaza.
A senior official in the Civil Defense, as well as two women, two children and a couple of other people were killed early Sunday in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. They kidnapped another 250, and still hold 100 of them after releasing most of the rest in a swap for Palestinians jailed by Israel during a cease-fire last November. Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent months trying to broker a cease-fire and the return of the hostages, but the negotiations have repeatedly bogged down.
The West Bank Crisis is Coming to an End: The Jerusalem Times in a Cold War with the Israeli Army and the Palestinians (with a New Look)
Taken together, the violence constitutes the most complex sequence of attacks relating to the volatile West Bank in years, according to analysts. While the border attack was seen as an act of a single individual with unclear intentions, there have been other episodes where militant groups have gotten better at their craft despiteIsraeli efforts to contain their insurgency, analysts said.
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