Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Sunday to continue its war against Hamas militants in Gaza as the conflict enters its 12th month, saying his country is “surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil.”
The Israeli leader, speaking at a weekly meeting of top government officials, condemned the latest Middle East violence, a gunman’s attack that killed three Israelis at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. Israeli security forces returned fire and killed the assailant.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, an Israeli airstrike killed five people, including two women, two children and a senior Civil Defense official.
Netanyahu cast Israel’s fight in Biblical terms, saying, “We will wield the sword of David together and with God’s help, we will win.”
Quoting the Bible, Netanyahu asked, “’Shall the sword devour forever?’”
“In the Middle East,” he said, “without the sword, there is no ‘forever.'”
In recent days, there have been vast street protests of his handling of the 11-month war against Hamas, along with his failure to reach a cease-fire with the militants and for the return of the remaining 100 or so hostages held by the U.S. designated terror group.
But Netanyahu told the other Israeli leaders that the “great majority of Israel’s citizens … know that we are fully committed to achieving the objectives of the war: To eliminate Hamas, to return all of our hostages, to ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel and to return our residents in the north and south securely to their homes.”
In Sunday’s West Bank attack, the military said the gunman approached the Allenby Bridge Crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed the assailant in a shootout. It said the three people killed were Israeli civilians, all men in their 50s.
Jordan is investigating the shooting, its state-run Petra News Agency reported.
The Western-allied Arab country made peace with Israel in 1994 but is deeply critical of its policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan has a large Palestinian population and has seen mass protests against Israel over the war in Gaza.
The Allenby crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is mainly used by Israelis, Palestinians and international tourists. Authorities in Israel and Jordan said the crossing was closed until further notice, and Israel later announced the closure of both of its land crossings with Jordan, near Beit Shean in the north and Eilat in the south.
The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas’ October 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.
The Civil Defense in Gaza — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government — said Sunday’s Israeli attack 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.
The war was triggered by the shock October 7 attack on southern Israel last year that killed about 1,200 people and led to the capture of about 250 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, although the Israeli military says the death toll includes several thousand militants.
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.
This report included material from The Associated Press.
