Jordan uses force to break pro-Palestine protests near Israeli embassy

Jordanian anti-riot police have beaten and arrested scores of demonstrators who attempted to march toward the heavily guarded Israeli embassy in the capital Amman, witnesses and residents said.

More than two thousand protesters gathered late on Tuesday, the third day of demonstrations which have been marred with clashes, after baton-wielding police pushed back hundreds of angry crowds seeking to storm the embassy compound in the affluent Rabae district of Amman.

The Israeli embassy, where protesters gather daily, has long been a flashpoint of anti-Israel protests at times of Israel's brutal war on and siege of Gaza.

Passions running high

Many demonstrators chanted slogans in support of the resistance group Hamas.

"Oh Hamas...All of Jordan's people are behind you," the protesters chanted.

Passions have run high among Jordanians over the carnage in Gaza as Israel's relentless bombardment has led to tens of thousands of civilian killings, and flattened many parts of the densely populated enclave.

Jordan has seen some of the biggest outpourings of public anger in the region since Israel's war on the besieged Palestinians following Hamas' October 7 blitz which surprised its arch-enemy.

Hamas says it was orchestrated in response to Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, illegal settler violence in occupied West Bank and to put Palestine question "back on the table."

In an assault of startling breadth, Hamas gunmen rolled into as many as 22 locations outside Gaza, including towns and other communities as far as 24 kilometres from the Gaza fence. In some places they are said to have gunned down many soldiers as Israel's military scrambled to muster response.

And upon return to Gaza, they also took along some 240 hostages, including Israeli military personnel and civilians. Dozens of the captives were later exchanged for Palestinians incarcerating in Israeli dungeons.

Since then, Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza from air, land and sea, killing more than 32,400 Palestinians, mostly children and women, wounding more than 74,700 and displacing most of 2.3 million people in the tiny coastal enclave.