The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Friday announced that Israel had launched an initial probe into the incident near the Israeli embassy in Jordan, in which an Israeli security guard shot and killed two Jordanians.
"Israel is conducting a process of examining the incident, in accordance with the usual legal procedures in such cases. The State Attorney, in coordination with the Attorney General, instructed all the parties to hand over the materials in their possession that relate to the incident,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“As part of the relations between Israel and Jordan, Israel will update Jordan on the developments and findings of the investigation,” it added.
The security guard was lightly injured when a Jordanian worker stabbed him with screwdriver at his residence adjacent to the embassy.
After he was stabbed, the security guard opened fire on the assailant, killing him. A second Jordanian national, reportedly the security guard’s landlord, was also killed.
Following the attack, Jordanian officials demanded Israel turn over the security officer for interrogation – despite his diplomatic immunity.
Jordan had refused to allow the guard to leave the country. The head of the Shin Bet intelligence agency then traveled to Amman to conduct his own investigation into the incident. The intelligence chief presented the officer's side of the story to Jordanian officials, and after negotiations between King Abdullah and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Jordan agreed to allow the guard to return to Israel.
Jordan demanded on Thursday that Israel put the guard on trial, despite hearing the results of the Shin Bet investigation and the conclusion that he acted in self-defense after being attacked.
Friday’s announcement came a day after Jordan’s attorney general announced that he intends to pursue murder charges in an international court against the security guard.
The Attorney General, Akram Masadeh, also said he intends to have the guard charged with possession of illegal weapons.
He acknowledged the guard could not be tried in Jordan because he has diplomatic immunity there, but said he would have no immunity in an international court.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)