On 18 October 2024, at least two militants infiltrated

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

from

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

in the

Neot HaKikar Neot HaKikar () is a moshav in the northern Arava valley in southern Israel, established in 1970. Located in the south of the Dead Sea, at an elevation of ''below'' sea level, it falls under the jurisdiction of Tamar Regional Council The Tamar ...

area, a moshav located in the

Arabah valley The Arabah/Araba () or Aravah/Arava () is a loosely defined geographic area in the Negev Desert, south of the Dead Sea basin, which forms part of the border between Israel to the west and Jordan to the east. The old meaning, which was in use ...

just south of the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea (; or ; ), also known by #Names, other names, is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east, the Israeli-occupied West Bank to the west and Israel to the southwest. It lies in the endorheic basin of the Jordan Rift Valle ...

. The militants ambushed Israeli troops and opened fire on them, wounding two of them moderately. Israeli troops killed two of the militants during a firefight, with a third attacker probably escaping. Residents of Neot HaKikar were instructed to remain indoors as the troops and police searched for the third militant. The

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

in Jordan identified the two deceased attackers, Hussam Abu Ghazaleh and Amer Qawoos, as members of their group. Palestinian Islamist group

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

praised the attack, that occurred just a few hours after Israeli troops killed their leader,

Yahya Sinwar Yahya Ibrahim Hassan Sinwar (; 29 October 1962 – 16 October 2024) was a Palestinian militant and politician who served as chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from August 2024, and as the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip from February ...

, in

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

Background

Relations between Israel and Jordan, which signed a peace treaty in 1994, have been tense since the start of the

Gaza war The Gaza war is an armed conflict in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel fought since 7 October 2023. A part of the unresolved Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Israeli–Palestinian and Gaza–Israel conflict, Gaza–Israel conflicts dating ...

in October 2023, with Jordan having recalled its ambassador to Israel. Nonetheless, in some respects, security cooperation remained close; in April 2024, Jordan helped Israel in shooting down Iranian missiles launched against Israel. The Israeli-Jordanian border has remained largely calm since the peace treaty, experiencing only limited incidents like the one on September 8, 2024, a month before the Neot HaKikar attack, when a

ian truck driver carried out a shooting attack at the

Allenby Bridge The Allenby Bridge (), known officially in Jordan as the King Hussein Bridge (), is a bridge that crosses the Jordan River near the city of Jericho in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the town of Al-Karameh in Jordan. The bridge is currently ...

, a border terminal between Jordan and the Israeli-occupied

West Bank The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

, killing three Israeli civilians employed at the terminal. The perpetrator was shot and killed by Israeli security forces. Jordan identified the attacker as one of its citizens, named Maher Al-Jazy, while condemning attacks against civilians and calling for de-escalation. On the streets in Jordan, some citizens gathered to celebrate the attack, amid widespread anger over the war. On 16 October 2024,

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...

and leader

was killed in a gunfight with the Israeli military in

, southern

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. Sinwar, who was one of Israel's most wanted men after the

October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...

, was in a building with two others. The military operation was described as random and not planned in advance. The killing was announced on 17 October.

The attack

On 18 October 2024, at least two gunmen infiltrated Israel from Jordan near Neot HaKikar in the Arava valley, south of the Dead Sea. The gunmen, who were clad in military uniform, ambushed Israeli troops and opened fire, wounding an IDF soldier and a reservist moderately. The IDF promptly responded and killed two of the gunmen. According to police, the gunmen attempted to enter Moshav Neot HaKikar, but were stopped by the army and the community's security squad. Residents of Neot HaKikar were instructed to remain indoors while the IDF and police, in collaboration with the Israeli Air Force, began searching for a third gunman who probably escaped. Militants killed by the IDF have been linked to the

Islamic Resistance in Jordan The Islamic Resistance in Jordan () is a clandestine militant organization in Jordan, fostered by Kataib Hezbollah in April 2024. History The group is believed to have been established following the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate ...

, a clandestine militant organization in Jordan, fostered by

Kata'ib Hezbollah Kata'ib Hezbollah (), also known as the Hezbollah Brigades, is an Iraqi Shia paramilitary group which is a part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), staffing the 45th, 46th, and 47th Brigades. During the Iraq War (2003–11), the g ...

Reactions

Jordan

The

in Jordan claimed the two killed attackers as members of their group, saying they "always participated in events in solidarity with Gaza and in support of the resistance." Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Moath al-Khawaldeh named the two as Hussam Abu Ghazaleh and Amer Qawoos.

Palestine

The leadership of Palestinian group

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

, commended the shooting attack "targeting soldiers of the Zionist occupation army," adding in a statement that it "confirms" the continued Arab support for their cause.

References