Two killed, Israeli wounded at Jordan embassy

AN ISRAELI security guard shot dead a Jordanian who attacked him with a screwdriver at the Israeli Embassy compound in Amman, while a second Jordanian was accidentally killed, officials and a security source said.

The incident on Sunday night came with tensions high over new Israeli security measures at a highly sensitive holy site in Jerusalem, but it was not clear if there was any link.

The Jordanian had come to an apartment in an annex building at the Israe- li Embassy to install furniture and stabbed the security guard in the back with the screwdriver, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.

The guard then responded by shooting dead the Jordanian worker, while the apartment owner who was there at the time was wounded and later died from his injuries, according to the Foreign Ministry and a security source. The security guard was lightly wounded.

The security source in Amman had confirmed earlier that two Jordanians were killed in a shooting in the area of the embassy.

“The first Jordanian, 17-year-old Mohammed Jawawdeh, succumbed to his injuries at the scene. The second, Bashar Hamarneh, a doctor who was in the residential quarter of the embassy at the time of the incident . . . died of his injuries after midnight in hospital,” the security source said.

The injured Israeli is “deputy director of security at the Israeli Embassy and is still receiving treatment in hospital”.

An investigation into the shooting was still underway, the police said.

Tensions have been high in recent days after Israel put in place security measures at a highly sensitive holy site in annexed east Jerusalem.

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the site following an attack nearby that killed two policemen.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount.