Palestine: Hundreds stranded at Jordan river due to restricted Israeli crossing hours

The crossing is open 24 hours on the Jordanian side, but Israel’s limited access times have seen Palestinians stuck at the bridge for up to three days in scorching heat.

Hundreds of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have been stuck for days at a crossing with Jordan due to Israeli limited opening hours.

A bridge that crosses the Jordan River is the only available route for Palestinians in the West Bank and for some from the besieged Gaza Strip, who obtain permits to use it to travel to the outside world.

The bridge is controlled mainly by Jordan and Israel, which also coordinate the movement of Palestinians with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The crossing carries three official names: the Allenby Bridge (named after the British governor Edmund Allenby) on the Israeli side; al-Karameh (the Dignity) on the Palestinian side; and the King Hussein in Jordan.

While the crossing is open 24 hours on the Jordanian side, Israeli staff operate it from 8am and shut the gates at 11pm during the week, and at midday on Friday and Saturday.

This has turned the crossing into a bottleneck, with almost 5,000 Palestinians travelling daily through the King Hussein during the school summer holidays and the Hajj season in Mecca.

Some Palestinians have been stranded for up to three days in the scorching heat of the Jordan Valley – which can reach 40C – before being able to cross to the Israeli side, according to local media.

Jordan said it has been sending 80 to 85 buses a day full of Palestinians to the Israeli and PA crossings, only for many of them to be returned to King Hussein once the Allenby bridge shuts at 11pm.

‘Catastrophic conditions’

Hussein al-Sheikh, the PA’s head of the General Authority of Civil Affairs, which coordinates security and civilian matters with Israel, tweeted on Monday that the Israeli government was “responsible for the catastrophic conditions” at the crossing.

“We are conducting intensive contacts with our brothers in Jordan to find solutions to this tragic situation experienced by Palestinians in their movement,” he tweeted.