The West Bank’s Allenby Bridge Crossing into Jordan has expanded its hours and is now open around the clock, five days a week, to ease travel conditions for Palestinians heading into Jordan, US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides announced on a Twitter post.
“This is a win for Palestinians and Israelis alike!” he tweeted along with photographs of himself at the crossing which is located in the Jordan Valley.
Easier travel for Palestinians
US President Joe Biden has pressed Israel to take steps to ease foreign travel for West Bank Palestinians since he entered office in January 2021.
There is no airport in the West Bank and most Palestinians are barred for security reasons from traveling through Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport.
Palestinians must therefore exit the West Bank through the Allenby crossing and travel from there to Queen Alia’s International Airport in Amman.
The crossing’s limited hours have made foreign travel time-consuming and expensive for Palestinians who must first wait long hours at the Allenby crossing and who often have to add an overnight stay in Amman onto their travels.
Israel promised US President Joe Biden it would allow the crossing to be open round the clock when he visited Israel last July. Biden in turn made that promise to the Palestinians.
“We kept @POTUS’s promise,” Nides tweeted. He has worked behind the scenes to help make that happen.
Nides' announcement that the crossing’s hours were expanding comes in the middle of the holy month of Ramadan when Palestinian travel to see family and friends increases.
Nides visited the crossing on Sunday and thanked Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzahi Hanegbi and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Ghasan Alyan.
“I want to thank my friends at COGAT, for their leadership and determination to make this happen, and my friends at the Israeli Airports Authority which runs the bridge,” Nides said.
“Trade and freedom of movement are the keys to peace,” he said.
Neither Israel nor COGAT have yet announced the crossing’s expansion and the new hours are not listed on the crossing’s website.