JERUSALEM (AP) — Three people were shot and killed Sunday near the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Israeli first responders said.
Israeli police said the shooter was killed, without providing further details. The border crossing is used by Palestinians, Israelis and international tourists. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service was at the scene and confirmed the toll.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Israel has launched near-daily military arrest raids into dense Palestinian residential areas, and there has also been a rise in settler violence and Palestinian attacks on Israelis.
In Gaza, meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed five people, including two women, two children and a senior official in the Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government.
The Civil Defense said the strike targeted the home of its deputy director for north Gaza, Mohammed Morsi, in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The army says it tries to avoid harming civilians and only targets militants.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war erupted 11 months ago. It does not say how many were fighters and how many civilians.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. They abducted another 250, and are still holding around 100 of them after releasing most of the rest in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel during a weeklong 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 Associated Press