Jordanian slain, Israeli wounded in Israel’s Amman embassy compound

One Jordanian was killed, another wounded and an Israeli was seriously wounded at Israel's embassy in Amman on Sunday, a police statement said.

"An initial investigation indicated that three people were wounded, one an Israeli who was taken to hospital," it said, adding that two Jordanians were wounded and one later died of his injuries.

"A Jordanian man was killed and an Israeli man wounded and is in a serious condition following an incident inside the embassy" in the residential Rabiyeh neighbourhood of Amman, according to a security source who declined to be identified or give further details.

Before the shooting, the Jordanians had entered the apartment building for carpentry work, the Washington Post reported, citing a statement from the kingdom’s Public Security Directorate.

Hala Akhbar, a news site linked to the Jordanian military, said the Israeli man was in “unstable” condition.

Jordanian security forces deployed in the streets around the embassy, an AFP correspondent said.

Israel and Jordan are bound by a 1994 peace treaty, but tensions have been high in recent days after Israel implemented security measures at a highly sensitive Palestinian holy site in annexed East Jerusalem.

Many of Jordan's 7 million citizens are of Palestinian origin. They or their parents having been expelled or fled to Jordan in the fighting that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948.

On Friday, thousands of Jordanians took to the streets of Amman after the weekly prayer to denounce the Israeli measures at the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount.

Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.

A crowd estimated at more than 8,000 turned out for a demonstration called by Islamist movements and leftist parties.

Israel shut off the mosque compound on 14 July after Palestinian citizens of Israel attacked and killed two police officers nearby.

Violence has flared between Israeli security forces and Palestinians who are demanding that Israel remove metal detectors installed outside the site after the attack.