JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israel Security Agency will investigate the shooting of two Jordanian civilians by an embassy guard in what an initial investigation determined was self-defense during a terror attack.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the agency, also known as Shin Bet, to investigate the incident, Ynet reported.
During the July 23 incident, the Israeli Embassy security guard, identified as Ziv, shot and killed an assailant, 17, who had entered a residential building in Amman used by the embassy to install furniture and stabbed the Israeli guard with a screwdriver. The building’s owner, who according to Ynet tackled the assailant and attempted to prevent the attack, was killed after being hit by a stray bullet.
Following the incident, Israel refused to hand over the guard for questioning by Jordanian authorities citing diplomatic immunity. The embassy staff was allowed to leave Amman for Israel nearly two days later amid demonstrations and calls for the death penalty for the security guard.
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan are overseeing the investigation, according to Ynet. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also confirmed the investigation to Israeli media.
Jordan has said it will refuse to allow Israel’s embassy staff to return unless a trial takes place.
On Thursday, Jordan’s attorney general, Akram Masaadeh, charged the guard in absentia with two counts of murder and for bearing an unlicensed weapon.
Hundreds of protesters marched Friday in Amman attempting to surround the Israeli Embassy and calling on the government to shut it down, expel the ambassador and cancel the 1994 peace treaty with Israel, i24 reported. The protesters also chanted “Death to Israel” and “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian soil.”
