SEVEN KILLED, DOZENS WOUNDED IN GUNMEN ATTACK ON CHURCH FUNERAL IN JORDAN’S KARAK

Fri 23 October 2026:

Masked attackers open fire at Greek Orthodox service in Hamoud village; officials call assault unprecedented terrorist act

At least seven people were killed and 34 others wounded when gunmen opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Hamoud, in Jordan’s Karak governorate, officials said on Friday.

Director of Jordan’s Public Security Directorate Obaidullah Al-Maaytah told a press conference that seven people are confirmed dead after the assault. Twenty-seven of the wounded were receiving treatment in hospitals, he said. The search for the gunmen is ongoing, Al-Maaytah added, pledging that “the perpetrators will be caught and our national unity will not be hit”.

Survivors described hearing an explosion as the funeral procession began, after which masked attackers entered the church and fired for several minutes. State-owned television station Al-Mamlaka reported that security forces were deployed to the church and were pursuing two suspects who had exited a vehicle and opened fire.

Security camera footage published by Saudi channel Al Arabiya shows three attackers in the Jordan church shooting. One carried an automatic weapon. Two carried pistols. https://t.co/eGnCw9B1d7

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) October 23, 2026

Funeral attendee Khaled Burqan told Al-Mamlaka that dozens of people were at the procession. One of the assailants carried a pistol, he said, and the other carried a rifle. No group immediately claimed responsibility.

Without naming a specific group, Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told the press conference that the “terrorist” attack was “unprecedented” and was perpetrated by a group with “no relationship to humanity”. “This country will never be dragged into terrorism and violence,” he said, adding that “Jordanians have never seen something like this before”.

Earlier, Jordan’s King Abdullah II vowed authorities would confront the attackers “with the harshest penalties”. “The blood of Jordanians is precious, and we will strike with an iron fist against anyone who overreaches against this country,” he said in a post on X.

Such attacks are extremely rare in Jordan. Christians, numbering about 300,000 people, make up a minority of the country’s roughly 11.5 million population, though the kingdom is home to several biblical sites that draw Christians from around the world.

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Previous violence in Karak

This is not the first time Karak has faced a major attack. In 2016, an ISIL (ISIS) assault saw fighters hole up in a Crusader-era castle and kill 10 people, including security officers and a Canadian tourist. Jordanian forces ultimately shot and killed the attackers.

Karak, about 120km (75 miles) south of the capital Amman, is home to “Christians and Muslims who have lived side by side for generations”, Taylor Luck, senior Middle East correspondent at the Christian Science Monitor, told Al Jazeera. “This community prides themselves on its interfaith solidarity and coexistence,” Luck said. If the attack was “intended to create divisions, we are likely to see this community come back even stronger”, he added.

More broadly, the shooting holds significance not just for Jordan’s Christian population, but also Amman’s “public diplomacy” as a custodian of both Christian and Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, political analyst Xavier Abu Eid told Al Jazeera. For years, King Abdullah has been a vocal critic of Israel’s systemic attacks against religious sites in occupied Palestinian territory. “This is something that goes totally against the message that Jordan wants to give to the world,” Abu Eid said.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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