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Jordan: Gunman killed, 3 policemen injured in shooting near Israel embassy in Amman

November 24, 2024 at 10:39 am

Police vehicles on a street near the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan November 24, 2024. [Screengrab/AA]

A gunman was killed and three Jordanian policemen injured following a shooting near the heavily fortified Israeli embassy in Amman in the early hours of today, according to state media and security sources. The incident occurred in the affluent Rabiah neighbourhood of the Jordanian capital.

Police shot the gunman, who had opened fire on a police patrol in the area. The gunman, armed with an automatic weapon, was pursued for at least an hour before being cornered and killed just before dawn, as reported by the state news agency Petra. The agency made no mention of the relevance of the Israeli embassy in the incident.

Jordanian Communications Minister Mohamed Momani described the incident as a terrorist attack targeting public security forces.

“Tampering with the security of the nation and attacking security personnel will be met with a firm response,” Momani told Reuters, adding that the gunman had a criminal record in drug trafficking.

The area around the occupation state’s embassy was cordoned off, and witnesses reported a heavy police and ambulance presence. The Rabiah district is known as a frequent site for anti-Israel demonstrations. Recent protests across Jordan have expressed anger over Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and massacres in the occupied-West Bank.

Many of Jordan’s citizens are of Palestinian origin, with families that fled or were expelled during the Nakba in 1948. Jordan’s 1994 peace treaty with Israel remains deeply unpopular among Jordanians who view it as a betrayal of Palestinian rights.

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