Israel army says kills two attackers who crossed in from Jordan

Two soldiers lightly wounded in an exchange of fire with the attackers

Jerusalem: The Israeli military said troops killed on Friday two armed assailants who had crossed into Israel from Jordan and lightly wounded two soldiers, in a rare attack in the border area.

“Two terrorists who crossed from Jordan into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea were eliminated by IDF (army) soldiers,” a military statement said, adding that a third attacker was thought to have fled the scene.

Two soldiers, one of whom a reservist, were lightly wounded in an exchange of fire with the attackers, the army said, as forces were searching the area “due to the suspicion of the presence of an additional terrorist”.

Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has fought Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023 attack, called the attack from Jordan “a significant development in the ongoing battle”.

The Qatar-based leadership of Hamas praised the shooting attack “targeting soldiers of the Zionist occupation army”, adding in a statement that it “confirms” the continued Arab support for their cause.

It came just hours after Israel confirmed its forces in Gaza had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attack.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 42,438 people, a majority of them civilians, according to figures issued by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry and acknowledge by the UN as reliable.

Jordan in 1994 became the second Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and their shared border has remained largely calm since then.

Last month, a Jordanian gunman killed three Israeli guards at Jordan’s border crossing with the occupied West Bank - the first such attack since the 1990s.