The gunmen came for five minutes; the grief will last longer.

Karak is a place of stone and memory, a southern Jordanian town where a Crusader castle overlooks streets that have known Christian and Muslim neighbors for centuries. On Friday, that long coexistence was interrupted by gunfire. Three assailants opened fire during a funeral at a Greek Orthodox church, killing at least seven people and wounding more than thirty others in an attack that Jordan's king has vowed to answer with "an iron fist" .

The attack unfolded in the early afternoon. Between 150 and 200 people were inside or near the church for the funeral when a vehicle arrived and the gunmen began firing. An eyewitness told Jordanian state media that the shooting continued for approximately five minutes before the attackers fled . Video broadcast on state television showed two men with pistols and a third with a semiautomatic rifle approaching the church, taking cover behind trees and a wall, then running toward the entrance .

Jordan's Director of Public Security, Major General Abdullah Al-Maaytah, confirmed the death toll and said 34 people were wounded, with 27 still receiving treatment. Most of the victims were between 50 and 70 years old, according to reports citing security sources . Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya described the attackers as a "terrorist group" with "absolutely no connection whatsoever to human values" and said security services were working around the clock to track them down .

King Abdullah II, in a post on X, said, "The terrorist attack against Karak will be met with the harshest retaliation. We will strike with an iron fist against those who dare to threaten our nation" . Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the shooting a "heinous terrorist attack" that "reaffirms once again that terrorism has no religion and no homeland, and its aim is to strike at coexistence and spread strife." Syria's Foreign Ministry and Iraq's foreign minister also issued statements of condemnation and solidarity .

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in Jordan responded with a statement that carried both grief and resolve. "If the attack was aimed at driving out Christians from the holy land, it will not work," the church said. "It will only make us cling to it more firmly and deepen our roots in it." The archdiocese expressed confidence that Jordanian society would remain "impervious to every dark, extremist ideology" .

Karak is home to a significant Christian minority in the Muslim-majority kingdom, and attacks on houses of worship are rare. The town has known violence before: in 2016, gunmen carried out a series of attacks in Karak, including at the Crusader castle, killing ten people, including seven police officers. That attack was later claimed by the Islamic State group . The memory of 2016 lingers, and Friday's assault has revived questions about security in a country that has long presented itself as a stable haven in a volatile region.

The investigation is underway, and authorities have not announced any arrests. The gunmen remain at large. For the families of the dead, the funeral they had gathered to attend has become the occasion of another. For the Christian community of Karak, the church that was attacked will remain a place of worship, and the Archdiocese has made clear it will not be emptied by fear.

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AI Image Disclaimer: Visuals associated with this report were generated by artificial intelligence for illustrative purposes only.

Sources: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Canadian Press, Associated Press, ORF, NOS