Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian at Jordan crossing

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian judge from Jordan on Monday in an altercation at a crossing point between Jordan and the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

The Israeli military said the man had tried to seize a soldier's gun at the Allenby bridge, which spans the Jordan River, and that troops had then shot him.

The Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank city of Ramallah condemned what it called the "shooting at close range" by Israeli troops, and it demanded an investigation.

A statement from Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah's office identified the man as Raed Alaa el-Deen Za'eiter, 38, a West Bank-born judge working in Jordan.

An Israeli military official said the military were checking the reports about the man's identity.

Two weeks ago, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian they were seeking to arrest in the West Bank town of Bir Zeit.

Last month, Amnesty International published a report which said Israeli forces were using excessive violence in the West Bank, killing dozens of Palestinians over the past three years in what the rights group said might constitute a war crime.

The Israeli army dismissed the criticism, saying security forces had seen a substantial increase in Palestinian violence.

Israel, which captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994, maintains a transit terminal for Palestinians and foreign visitors at the Allenby bridge. A crossing for Israeli citizens is further to the south.

ANN.Az