An Israeli security guard working for the Israeli Embassy in Amman was barred from departing for Israel on Monday after shooting and killing a Jordanian who attacked him with a screwdriver on Sunday. A second Jordanian was also killed in the incident, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Monday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordanian King Abdullah were scheduled to discuss the incident later Monday, which was threatening to become a diplomatic crisis. Netanyahu was also planning to send a senior security official to Jordan to conduct talks there. A news website linked to the Jordanian military reported that Jordan wants to question the guard, and if Israel refuses to allow this, "diplomatic measures" will be taken. The fortress-like Israeli Embassy in the affluent Rabae district of the Jordanian capital is protected by Jordanian police. It has long been a flashpoint of anti-Israeli protests at times of turmoil in the Palestinian territories. The father of the Jordanian youth who stabbed the Israeli security guard and was then shot to death demanded "justice" over his son's killing. Zakariah Jawawdeh told The Associated Press that his son was a "son of Jordan who was shot on Jordanian soil," and it would be unacceptable for the Jordanian government not to seek justice for this. The 17-year-old son stabbed the guard with a screwdriver late on Sunday. The guard opened fire, killing his attacker and another Jordanian. The father on Monday denied reports that his son was motivated by political incitement. He said his son was not affiliated with any group. The incident had potential to cause a rift in already tense Israel-Jordan relations. Jordan wanted to question the Israeli guard, who was lightly injured, but Israel said he had diplomatic immunity under the Vienna Convention. Tensions have escalated between the two countries since Israel installed metal detectors at entry points to Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after two Israeli policemen were shot dead by three Arab-Israeli gunmen near the site on July 14. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Netanyahu, who is also the foreign minister, had spoken to the security guard and to Ambassador Einat Schlein, and had stressed that the guard has immunity from questioning and prosecution. The incident took place as furniture was being replaced at the staff residence. The statement said the second Jordanian who died was the property owner. A 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 source said. The injured Israeli is "deputy director of security at the Israeli Embassy and is still receiving treatment in hospital," the source said. The source did not specify the whereabouts of embassy personnel, but Israeli media reported that at least 30 embassy staffers had been barricaded in the embassy building. Israel imposed a ban on reporting the incident on Sunday, and only broke its silence early on Monday. Israel Radio said the ban had been imposed because Jordan wanted to question the security guard but Israel refused. Relations between Jordan and Israel were cemented in a peace deal in 1994, but reached crisis point three years later when Mossad intelligence officers tried but failed to assassinate senior Hamas official Khaled Mashaal in Jordan. Ties recovered after Israel delivered the antidote for the poison with which Mashaal had been injected. The Mossad chief at the time resigned and the two agents who carried out the failed plot were arrested and held in Jordan, but later freed. Violence against Israelis is rare in Jordan, a tightly policed country that is also a staunch regional ally of the United States. It shares a long border with Israel.
