Jordan’s Foreign Ministry announced, Tuesday, it received the body of the martyr Maher Al-Jazi Al-Huwaitat, the perpetrator of the King Hussein Bridge operation, in which 3 Israelis were killed last week.
Petra, the Jordanian News Agency quoted the Foreign Ministry as stating Al-Jazi’s body was received from the Israeli side to be buried in Jordan after being handed over to his family.
The ministry said that, in coordination with the relevant authorities in the Kingdom, it is continuing its efforts to release the two Jordanian citizens, Musleh Al-Awdat and Hussein Al-Naimat, who are being held as a result of the shooting incident that took place on the Palestinian side of the King Hussein Bridge, which is controlled by Israel.
Kassib Al-Jazi, the brother of the martyr Maher, told Al Jazeera Net that arrangements are being made with the Jordanian Foreign Ministry to follow up on all the details related to receiving the body.
Pressure
The Jerusalem Post reported that the decision to return the body to the Kingdom came after great pressure from the Jordanians, and in order to “preserve the quality of security relations” between the two sides.
Over the past few days, the capital Amman and other cities in Jordan witnessed mass demonstrations demanding the return of Al-Jazi’s body, after the occupation authorities detained it following his martyrdom.
Al-Jazi, a retired Jordanian soldier who worked as a truck driver, had opened fire on Israeli border security while driving his truck through the crossing called Allenby on the Israeli side, killing three of them before he was killed by Israeli security forces on 8 September.
At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described what happened at the Allenby crossing as a difficult day for Israel as reported in Al Jazeera.