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Conflicts

Deadly attack at Israeli embassy in Jordan

July 23, 2017

Two Jordanians have been killed and an Israeli security guard injured in a shooting at the Israeli embassy complex in Amman, Israel said. Tensions between Israel and Jordan run high over Muslim shrines in Jerusalem.

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Jordanien Schüsse in israelischer Botschaft in Amman
Image: picture-alliance/abaca

Jordanian police deployed dozens of anti-terrorism police forces following the two deaths on Sunday.

"We have started a large scale investigation into the incident and ordered the prosecutor general to look at all the details," the police said in a statement.

According to Israel, an Israeli security guard opened fire after a 17-year-old Jordanian workman attacked him with a screwdriver. The guard killed the teenager, but also accidentally shot the Jordanian apartment owner who was present at the scene. The owner, a medical doctor, later died of the injuries he sustained. The Israeli security guard was lightly injured, Israeli media reports.

The 17-year-old worker had entered the embassy complex with a colleague to replace furniture, Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement, while Jordan said they were there to "do carpentry."

Israeli media reported that Jordan had insisted on conducting an investigation and prevented the embassy staff to leave the grounds. While the Foreign Ministry did not mention such requests, it stated that the guard, referred to as "deputy director of security" of the embassy, had diplomatic immunity.

Read more: What is Jerusalem's contentious holy site Temple Mount?

Security checks at the newly installed metal detectors by the Temple Mount
Security checks at the newly installed metal detectors by the Temple MountImage: picture-alliance/newscom/D. Hill

The incident comes amid mounting tensions between Israelis and Palestinians over metal detectors that Israel has installed at Jerusalem's holy site of Temple Mount after two police guards were shot dead on July 14. 

"They (metal detectors) will remain. The murderers will never tell us how to search the murderers," Tzachi Hanegbi, Israeli minister for regional development, told Army Radio on Sunday. "If they (Palestinians) do not want to enter the mosque, then let them not enter the mosque."

Thousands of Jordanian marched in protest of Israeli policies on Friday.

International response

The Temple Mount is in east Jerusalem, which was seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

King Abdullah's Hashemite monarchy in Jordan has been custodian of the Muslim holy sites of Jerusalem since 1924. Earlier on Sunday, Jordan requested an urgent meeting of Arab League
foreign ministers to discuss the situation in Jerusalem. It is to be held on Thursday in Cairo.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would halt security ties with Israel until it removed the walk-through gates installed at the entrances to the Al-Aqsa mosque.

The UN Security Council is to hold closed-door talks Monday about the violence.

jbh/jm (AP, Reuters)