Israel expands border crossing hours for Palestinians going to Jordan

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides announced on Sunday that the West Bank Allenby Bridge crossing point into Jordan is now operational 24 hours a day, five days a week. The expanded opening hours of the crossing should ease the traveling of Palestinians heading into Jordan and beyond.

“Big news! As of today, the Allenby Bridge is now officially open 24/5. We kept President Joe Biden’s promise. This is a win for Palestinians and Israelis alike!” Nides wrote on Twitter. The American ambassador thanked Israel’s national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Ghasan Aliyan and Chairman of Israel’s Airports Authority Jerry Gershon for increasing the bridge's operation.

Biden and his administration have been pressuring Israel since the Democrat took office to adopt measures that should ease the living conditions of Palestinians, including travel.

The West Bank has no airport of its own, as Israel won’t allow it, and the majority of Palestinians are banned for security reasons from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. Thus, Palestinians wishing to travel abroad must usually travel first to Jordan, often waiting long hours at the Allenby Bridge. The expansion of operating hours of the Allenby crossing will facilitate travel during the holy month of Ramadan, when West Bank Palestinians wish to visit family members in Jordan and West Bank Palestinians studying in Jordanian universities come home.

When Biden last visited Israel in June 2022, the government promised the president it would allow the crossing to be open at all hours of the day. Biden in turn had made that promise to the Palestinian leadership.

Another issue pushed by the Biden administration is the lowering of the tax Israel levies from the Palestinian Authority (PA) on fuel transfers. A Times of Israel report from mid-February said the government intends to lower that tax from 3% to 1.5%. The government, according to the report, also intends to raise the percentage of revenues it transfers to the PA from the fees it collects from travelers at the Allenby Bridge crossing and expanding the number of West Bank tax-free imported products. These measures have yet to be implemented.

Israeli, American, Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian senior officials have met twice in recent weeks — first in Aqaba, Jordan, in February and then in Sharm al-Sheikh, Egypt, in mid-March — in an attempt to lower tensions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem ahead of the month of Ramadan. The officials agreed to put in place a joint security committee to examine renewing Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation and another committee that would advance confidence-building economic measures.

Still, while Ramadan prayers at the Jerusalem Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound have been mostly orderly, tensions are still rising between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. Two Palestinians were killed Monday morning in armed clashes with the Israel Defense Forces in the West Bank town of Jenin. The Israeli troops were conducting a raid in connection to the murder of two Israeli brothers in the Palestinian village of Huwara at the end of February.

The Jenin-based Lion's Den group announced that it took part in the clashes with the Israeli troops and the PA announced a general strike for Monday.