The Israel Defense Forces and local security units apprehended six infiltrators who crossed the border from Jordan on Friday night, the Jordan Valley Regional Council said on Saturday.
Security personnel responding to a breach at the border near the Yarmouk River, searched the area and located the individuals, who were apparently seeking employment.
Israel’s frontier with Jordan extends 192 miles, making it the Jewish state’s longest border. Israel signed a peace treaty with Amman in 1994, but the kingdom has a majority Palestinian population and its government has taken an increasingly hostile tone since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war.
There has been a dramatic increase in arm-smuggling from Jordan into Judea and Samaria, something the IDF has attributed to Iran. Over the past two years, security forces have seized more than 1,000 weapons at the Jordanian border.
There is mounting concern in the security establishment after the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7 that pro-Iranian elements could attempt to penetrate Israel’s eastern border to commit a similar mass attack. Israel is working to prevent such a scenario from occurring, including by reinforcing troops at the border.
