On 10 December 2018, several news outlets reported that a 22 person team of Georgians removed enough of a West Bank minefield to unblock the site of Jesus’s baptism. Historically called Qasr el-Yahud, biblical accounts also say the Israelites entered Canaan at this crossing and Elijah the Prophet ascended to heaven. It lies near an ancient road and river ford connecting Jerusalem and Jericho with biblical sites such as Madaba, Mount Nebo and the King’s Highway.
During the 1967 Six-Day War, Jordanians and Israeli’s mined both sides of the river. Jordan removed their mines after signing the Peace Treaty with Israel in 1994. Israel did not clear Qasr al-Yahud until 2000, when Pope John Paul II landed there in a helicopter and held private worship. Israel refused to open Qasr al-Yahud to the public until 2011. The government limited the clearing to a narrow corridor leading to the river.
The mine field on the West Bank encompasses seven church compounds. One Israeli newspaper said the Georgians cleared landmines from three of the seven church compounds. Also, five monasteries at the Qasr el-Yahud baptism site became casualties of the 1967 war. The Israeli Defense Ministry and the British anti-mine organization HALO Trust estimated 6,500 landmines and booby traps lined the holy site.
The site remains under control of the IDF military zone.
Also see an article from Scotland’s National Newspaper