Jordanian police clash with protesters near Israel embassy

Protesters scuffle with Jordanian police near the Israeli Embassy in Amman on October 18, 2023. (File/AFP)
Short Url
Updated 25 March 2024
Follow

Jordanian police clash with protesters near Israel embassy

  • They chanted “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian land"

AMMAN: Riot police fired teargas to push back hundreds of Jordanian demonstrators marching on the Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday in protest at Israel’s latest storming of hospitals in Gaza and mounting civilian deaths.
The authorities had earlier deployed riot police to disperse demonstrators gathered in the Kaloti mosque in the capital who were planning to march on the heavily fortified Israeli embassy nearby.
Several protesters were beaten and several arrested as they tried to break a heavy police cordon around the embassy, witnesses said.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
They chanted “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian land,” in one of the slogans that have become customary at protests that call on Jordan to scrap its unpopular peace treaty with Israel that often prompt accusations of a sell out.
The Israeli embassy, where protesters gather daily, has long been a flashpoint of anti-Israel protests at times of turmoil in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.
The kingdom has witnessed some of the biggest peaceful rallies across the region as anti-Israel passions run high over the carnage in Gaza.
The authorities allow protests but say they cannot tolerate any attempt to storm the embassy, instigate civic unrest or try to reach a border zone with the Israeli occupied West Bank or Israel.
They have arrested hundreds of activists and protesters they say have broken the law since the war that was triggered when Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel on a rampage on Oct.7, killing 1,200 people and capturing 253 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled enclave
Other protesters chanted slogans backing the militant group Hamas.
“We want to go the borders and kill and kidnap Zionist soldiers. Revenge ... revenge ... Oh Hamas, bomb Tel Aviv,” they shouted.
Many of Jordan’s 12 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. They have close family ties with their kin on the other side of the Jordan River.


Helicopter crashes in Libya during medical evacuation, killing 3

The cause of the crash was not immediately known and it was unclear what happened to the injured soldier. (REUTERS)
Updated 11 February 2026
Follow

Helicopter crashes in Libya during medical evacuation, killing 3

  • The Matan Al-Sarra air base lies in an area under the control of Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern administration led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, but authorities in the east did not comment on the crash

TRIPOLI: A helicopter has crashed in southeastern Libya, killing a medic and two crew members carrying out a medical evacuation, state media said Tuesday.
Libyan news agency LANA said the chopper went down overnight near an air base in the Kufra region about 60 kilometers north of the border between Libya and Chad.
The aircraft was attempting to evacuate a soldier who had been involved in a road accident in the desert, LANA said.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known and it was unclear what happened to the injured soldier.
Libyan media reports said two foreign nationals were among those on board who were killed, but this was not confirmed by authorities.
The Matan Al-Sarra air base lies in an area under the control of Libya’s Benghazi-based eastern administration led by military strongman Khalifa Haftar, but authorities in the east did not comment on the crash.
Libya remains split between the eastern administration and a UN-backed government in the west led by Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dbeibah. The LANA news agency is under the control of western authorities.
Libya has struggled to recover from chaos that erupted following a 2011 Arab Spring uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi.