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JERUSALEM: Israel will reopen the only crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan to passenger traffic only, starting Friday morning, the Israeli Airports Authority said on Thursday.
Israel shut Allenby Crossing last Friday after a driver bringing humanitarian aid from Jordan for Gaza opened fire and killed two Israeli soldiers there. After briefly reopening it on Monday, Israel closed it indefinitely on Tuesday.
The gateway, also known as the Karama Crossing, serves as the main thoroughfare for West Bank Palestinians to travel abroad and is used by trucks carrying commercial goods between Jordan and the West Bank.
The decision to partially reopen it was made in accordance with the “directive of the political echelon,” the authority said.
Trucks using the crossing also carry aid bound for Gaza, and these will not be able to get through under the current directive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will respond to countries including France, Britain, Canada and Australia’s move to formally recognize a Palestinian state once he returns from his US visit that includes a meeting with President Donald Trump.
Some of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition allies have said the government should annex the West Bank in retaliation to Palestinian statehood recognition.

LONDON: Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs strongly condemned incursions by Jewish extremist settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday.

Hundreds of settlers entered the Al-Aqsa compound in East Jerusalem this week to celebrate the Jewish New Year, under the protection of Israeli police and accompanied by government officials.

The ministry’s spokesperson, Fouad Majali, reaffirmed Jordan’s “categorical” rejection and condemnation of settlers’ incursions and desecrations of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

He accused Israel of attempting to impose “new realities aimed at dividing the holy site spatially and temporally,” according to Petra news agency.

Majali added that the “reckless policies and practices of the extremist Israeli government (in Jerusalem) threaten to escalate the conflict globally.”

He said that Al-Aqsa Mosque is solely for Muslims, and urged the international community to end Israeli violations of Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem, the escalation of tensions in the West Bank, and aggression in Gaza.

Global initiatives should safeguard the Palestinian people and uphold their right to an independent state, Majali added.

Tensions have increased during the Jewish New Year amid heightened Israeli security and movement restrictions for Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem this week, Wafa news agency reported.

Since June 1967, the Jerusalem Endowments Council, known also as the Waqf, which operates under Jordan’s Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs, is the legal authority responsible for managing and regulating the affairs of Al-Aqsa.

However, extremist settlers have increasingly challenged the Waqf authority and the status quo by visiting the site at specific hours to perform Talmudic and Torah rituals while limiting access for Palestinians.