Gunman kills 2 at Israeli-run crossing between West Bank and Jordan. 4 soldiers killed in Gaza

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JERUSALEM (AP) — A Jordanian aid truck driver opened fire and killed two people at an Israeli-run border crossing in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, officials said. The Israeli military said four more soldiers were killed in the southern Gaza Strip, and that a drone had struck in the area of the southern Israeli city of Eilat.

The Israeli military referred to the shooting at the crossing with Jordan as a militant attack. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said that two men, around 60 and 20 years old, were killed. The military said the attacker had been “neutralized," without elaborating.

Jordan's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and identified the shooter as Abdel-Mutalib al-Qaisi, a man in his late 50s who it said had been driving aid trucks bound for Gaza for three months.

Three Israelis were killed in a September 2024 attack at the crossing, when a retired Jordanian soldier opened fire. That attack appeared to be linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The Allenby Bridge Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is mainly used by Palestinians and tourists. It was closed after the attack.

There were no reports of casualties or major damage from the drone, which the military said had been launched "from the east,” without elaborating. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired drones and missiles at Israel, often drawing retaliatory airstrikes.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three for a future state. Violence has surged across the occupied West Bank since the Hamas-led attack from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the latest war.

Israel is waging a major ground offensive in Gaza City that has forced nearly 250,000 Palestinians to flee, according to the United Nations. Hundreds of thousands remain in the city, large parts of which have already been destroyed in previous Israeli raids.

The four soldiers were killed by an explosive device during an operation in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, said Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the Israeli military spokesman. They are the first casualties to be announced since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza City, in the north.

Such deaths could further erode support for the war among Israelis who fear that the fighting puts soldiers and hostages at risk. At least 460 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

The war has killed at least 65,141 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the Hamas-run government. U.N. agencies and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. It does not say how many of those killed were civilians or combatants.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack that started the war and abducted 251 others. Forty-eight hostages remain in Gaza, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s culture minister has cut funding for the country’s most prestigious film awards ceremony, saying this year’s best feature winner “spits” on Israeli soldiers.

Miki Zohar said that he was taking the step in response to Tuesday’s Ophir Award for “The Sea” — a story about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy who sneaks into Israel from the West Bank in a quest to see the sea for the first time. The film will now represent Israel in the Oscar awards.

Zohar, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said that he was halting funding for the ceremony because of the film’s depiction of Israeli soldiers.

“On my watch, the citizens of Israel will not pay out of their pockets for a disgraceful ceremony that spits on the heroic Israeli soldiers,” he said in an X post. “The citizens of Israel deserve for their tax money to go to more important and valuable places.”

The Israeli military said Thursday that it plans on indicting a former senior officer in connection with the deaths of two Israelis in a Hezbollah ambush in southern Lebanon last November.

Col. Yoav Yarom, who was the chief of staff of the army’s Golani infantry brigade, stepped down after the incident. Zeev Erlich, 70, and Gur Kehati, a 20-year-old soldier, were killed.

At the time, the army launched an investigation to determine who allowed Erlich into the combat zone with the forces and why he was allowed to enter.

In a statement Thursday, the army said its military prosecutor plans on filing charges against Yarom, pending a preindictment hearing. Such a hearing is a standard procedure.

According to Israeli media reports, Erlich wasn't on active duty when he was shot, but was wearing a military uniform and had a weapon. Erlich was a well-known West Bank settler and researcher of Jewish history. Media reports said he was permitted to enter Lebanon to explore a local archaeological site.

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Associated Press reporter Omar Akour in Amman, Jordan, contributed.

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Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war