'The Allenby Bridge Crossing is the main crossing point for Palestinians who want to leave the West Bank'
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00:00Late this morning, a Jordanian truck driver got out on the Jordanian side of the Allenby
00:06Bridge, had a gun in his truck, despite the fact that there were security checks in theory
00:12on the Jordanian side, and he sprayed everyone he saw with bullets at close range.
00:19He killed three people before the security guards there killed him in turn.
00:24The Allenby Bridge crossing is the main crossing point for Palestinians who want to leave,
00:28the West Bank want to leave, or want to leave Israel, actually, as well, and don't want
00:33to fly out.
00:34They want to fly to Arab countries, they want to go to Arab countries.
00:37It's also a goods crossing point, and this truck driver was delivering goods.
00:41At the moment, this crossing has been closed from both sides.
00:47The Israelis say they're checking the truck to see it's not booby-trapped, checking other
00:50trucks to make sure he was a lone operator.
00:54The Jordanians are investigating also to see how he got through the security checks
01:00on their side.
01:01I have to say, this is a rare event at this crossing.
01:04It's one of four, I think, crossings that are part of the peace agreement between Jordan
01:10and Israel.
01:11That's years, decades-long peace agreement.
01:14I can't remember the last such attack, an attack where people are killed at the Allenby
01:18crossing.
01:19It would be years ago.
01:21You can see why this is a significant event today, and also a worrying one.
01:27Given that, how serious are concerns that relations between Israel and Jordan, or the
01:31security along the border with the West Bank, could deteriorate?
01:35Yes, there is concern about this border.
01:39There is this decades-long peace agreement, as we've said, but the truth is that relations
01:44between the present king and Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, are not good.
01:49There is currently no Israeli ambassador in Jordan, for example.
01:54There is a fear, I think, more even than the relations between Jordan, the formal relations
01:59between Jordan and Israel.
02:02It's a border that's hundreds of kilometers long.
02:05Also, there's no smart fences.
02:08It's very easily broken through.
02:11The fear is that this is where all the arms are coming into the West Bank and being smuggled
02:15in.
02:17Israel claims that it's these arms that it's been trying to source, the weapons and the
02:22arms, in its raids in West Bank towns over the past month, for example.
02:26Palestinians don't accept that argument.
02:28But there is no doubt there are more arms and weapons in Palestinian towns in the West
02:32Bank.
02:33And I think the fear that this border could become part of this war, and there could be
02:39an escalation to join Gaza, Lebanon, parts of the West Bank.
02:44Now the Gaza, the Israel-Jordan border, the West Bank-Jordan border, that's a real concern
02:51here.
02:52And it also, I have heard criticism of the way Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting the 11
02:57months since the Hamas attacks, because the situation for Israel's security across all
03:03its borders, and indeed wider if you look to the Houthis, is not good.
03:08And they are criticizing him for that this morning.