BICOM

Israel will reopen its Embassy in Amman after it was closed down following the deaths of two Jordanians citizens last July in an apartment block where Israeli diplomats were housed.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that that the two countries had “reached an agreement following the incident in Amman involving an Israeli diplomat on July 23, 2017, and the incident in which a Jordanian judge was killed on March 10, 2014”.

Jordan had said it would not allow Israel to reopen its Embassy until it launched legal proceedings against Ziv Moyal, the Israeli security guard who shot dead Mohammed Jawawdeh and Bashar Hamarneh in July last year. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said at the time that Moyal acted in self-defence after being stabbed with a screwdriver by 17-year-old Jawawdeh.

Hamarneh, a physician, was the owner of the apartment in which the incident occurred, where Jawawdeh, according to Jordanian accounts, had come to install furniture.

“The Israeli Embassy in Jordan will return to full activity immediately,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. “The Israeli authorities will continue reviewing the materials regarding the July 2017 incident and anticipate making a decision in the coming weeks”. Israeli sources said a new ambassador would soon be appointed to replace Einat Shlain

Officials in Amman said Israel had formally apologised for the incident. Government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani told state news agency Petra that the Israeli Foreign Ministry sent a memorandum in which it sent its “deep regrets and apologies”. Israel also promised to take “legal measures” in the case, Momani said, without specifying what they would be.

An apology and compensation were reportedly also offered for the March 2014 shooting under disputed circumstances of Raed Zeiter, a Jordanian magistrate’s court judge, by an IDF soldier at the Allenby Bridge. According to Israeli accounts, Zeiter was shot dead after allegedly attacking soldiers at the crossing and attempting to snatch the weapon of one of them.