The King Hussein (also known as the Allenby) Bridge Crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank, or among Palestinians as al-Karameh Crossing, is notoriously crowded, especially during the summer months when many Palestinians travel. It is the only international crossing through which about 3.5 million Palestinians with Palestinian Authority (PA) IDs are allowed to exit the country (see Summer at a Standstill: Long Delays and Congestion at King Hussein/Allenby Bridge).

While the approximately 400,0001 Palestinians with Israeli permanent-resident IDs are allowed to use Ben Gurion Airport and the Sheikh Hussein Bridge (also known as the Jordan Valley Crossing) farther north between Jordan and Israel to travel, they nonetheless largely use the King Hussein Bridge due to its proximity to Jerusalem. It is also relatively cheaper, and Israeli border forces there are known to be more lenient in their treatment of departing Palestinians compared to the airport.

An estimated 1.87 million passengers used the crossing in 2025.2

Summer 2026 was especially crowded, prohibiting many Palestinians from being able to travel to and from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.3

While the area of the bridge is militarized, the King Hussein/Allenby Bridge Crossing is actually run by the Israel Airports Authority (IAA), an Israeli civil authority, under directives from the Shin Bet.4 In fact, the IAA has been managing the crossing since 1995, a year into the Israel-Jordan peace agreement.

The overcrowding is largely a result of the reduced hours during which the IAA has allowed the crossing to operate since Israel declared war on Gaza on October 7, 2023. Attempts to fix the problem by regulating travel on the Jordanian side using an application that lets travelers reserve seats on buses or VIP vans in advance have failed. Demand continues to far exceed the number of people Israel allows to cross each day, which has led to further problems, as rampant corruption and price gouging have become the only way for travelers to secure a seat on buses or VIP vans.5

In June, Jordanian Interior Minister Mazin Al-Farrayeh visited the crossing and described conditions there as “garbage.”6

With the currently weakened state of national bodies such as the PA, a private-sector association led by Palestinian businessman Nassar Nassar, founder of Nassar Investment Company, a global exporter of local Palestinian stone, who serves as head of the Palestinian Private Sector Coordination Council and chairman of the Palestinian Businessmen Association, decided to bring the problem to Israeli courts.

In an interview with Israeli news outlet Ynet News in July, Nassar said:

He pinned the responsibility for the problems on the management of the crossing, specifically the IAA: “[The crossing] operates only six hours a day, six days a week, even though it should function like an international border crossing—24 hours a day, seven days a week.”8

During those limited operating hours, the crossing must accommodate all manner of travelers going both directions, as well as trucks carrying commodities for sale.

“The Israel Airports Authority continues to insist on limited operating hours that are insufficient to handle traffic of between 3,000 and 5,000 passengers a day. This has created major bottlenecks, increased travel and transportation costs and led to the exploitation of travelers because of the congestion.”9

He further added:

Nassar added that the bottleneck at the crossing harms more than travelers: It is devastating for Palestinian exports. “Today, between 170 and 200 trucks carrying goods enter from Jordan every day, while only about 15 trucks leave the West Bank for Jordan. That causes severe damage to the Palestinian economy.”11

Nassar and his colleagues hired an Israeli lawyer who, after trying to address the problem directly with the IAA and the Coordinator of Affairs of the Israeli Ministry of Defense to no avail, turned to the Israeli High Court.12

Attorney Shlomo Menachem, the representative of the group of Palestinian businesspeople who filed the petition earlier this year, told Jerusalem Story that he had no choice but to seek immediate court intervention through Bagatz.

Menachem said that he filed the petition on behalf of the group of Palestinian businesspeople asking the government of Israel to extend the hours of the sole crossing point for the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank.

Due to the urgency of the situation, the court called for a preliminary hearing to be held on July 27, 2026, even though the court was in summer recess.

At the hearing, the representative of the IAA claimed that the shortened hours “are ‘a direct function of the security guidelines we have to follow and the number of guards available to us.’” Qualified young Israelis are serving reserve duty and do not want to work at the crossing for the hourly wage offered ($27/hour).13 Paradoxically, the ongoing three-year war on Gaza has created a situation where Israelis reporting for reserve duty receive record financial pay up to tens of thousands of shekels ($13,800+) per soldier, particularly for combat troops, in addition to existing hefty bonuses such as preloaded digital credit cards, direct deposits for “household economy” costs, vacation vouchers, and other regular and special bonuses, even including benefits for spouses and children such as free fitness training, massages, and other perks. Reserve battalion commanders receive annual bonuses of NIS 20,000 NIS ($5,500).14

Menachem refused the IAA’s explanation: “I told the court, this justification would make sense for a few months, but it has been three years. Why hasn’t the Israel Airports Authority, which runs all crossing points, begun a process of recruiting new staff to fill in for those away in reserve?”15

Within hours, the justices issued their decision directing the IAA to extend the operating hours at the crossing and report back on its progress by November 1.16

The court case, which was scheduled for November, will hear the full demands of the Palestinian plaintiffs, who demanded that the crossing be allowed to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just like Ben Gurion Airport and the two crossings in the south with Jordan and Egypt.

As a way to defer a court ruling on the 24-hour request that was made in late June, the IAA agreed to extend the operating hours until 4:30 p.m. for travelers arriving to Israel from Jordan, but only on Sundays and Thursdays. And then, Menachem explained, two days before the July 27 emergency session, the IAA announced an additional two-hour extension of the bridge hours, but again, only in one direction. “Effective Sunday, 26 July 2026, and on Sundays and Thursdays only, the operating hours of the inbound passenger hall at the Allenby Border Crossing will be extended to operate from 08:00 to 18:30 for passengers entering Israel only.”17

Menachem told Jerusalem Story that a government representative replied that they cannot extend the hours beyond that for logistical reasons. “They said that, because there are not enough security personnel due to the fact that reserve soldiers have been called to help in the Gaza and Lebanon wars, the bridge authorities were left with fewer security personnel and therefore had to restrict the hours of the bridge.”

On September 22, the IAA made yet another concession. Menachem received a memo from the IAA stating that, starting October 4 (the day after the end of the Sukkot holiday), the crossing will be open until 6:30 p.m. weekdays (Sunday to Thursday) in both directions. On Fridays, it will operate half of the day, and it will continue to close all day on Saturdays. The IAA posted the new hours online,18 and local media in Palestine quickly reported the extensions.19

In November, the court will hold a formal full hearing. Its aim, Menachem told Jerusalem Story, is to find a more permanent solution to ease the situation at the bridge so that “Palestinians can travel with dignity.”20

Menachem insists the case would not have borne fruit were it not for the tenacity and insistence of the Palestinian businesspeople led by Nassar. The Israeli lawyer explained that he has also petitioned the court on behalf of the Palestinian private sector regarding being able to export products to the besieged Gaza Strip from the West Bank. At present, Israeli companies have a monopoly on this. The court has yet to schedule a date to hear that case.