Israeli security forces detained two people near the Dead Sea on Monday night who had illegally crossed from Jordan into Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The suspects, believed to be migrant workers, were handed over to authorities for questioning, according to Hebrew media.
The incident comes amid increasing tensions along Israel’s eastern frontier with Jordan, which at almost 200 miles is the Jewish state’s longest border.
Terrorist infiltrators from Jordan shot and wounded two Israelis near the Dead Sea in October. A month earlier, three security guards at the Allenby Bridge crossing in the Jordan Valley were murdered in a terrorist shooting.
The gunman, who according to the IDF was a Jordanian citizen, was killed. He was later named as Maher D’yab Hussein Jazi, a 39-year-old truck driver from the city of Irbid.
In November, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered the construction of a security barrier along the entire border with Jordan to thwart terrorist infiltrations.
This followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s pledge that Jerusalem would work with Amman to strengthen the eastern frontier to maintain “peace and security” in the area.
