Amman: Activists in Jordan called for further protests Sunday after days of demonstrations against the war in Gaza and Jordan’s peace treaty with Israel that have brought thousands onto the streets.
Jordan, where nearly half the population is of Palestinian origin, has seen regular rallies in Amman and elsewhere in solidarity with Gaza since Israel’s military onslaught in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack.
Recent protests have seen rare clashes between demonstrators and security forces in the capital and in Jordan’s largest Palestinian refugee camp.
The group Jordanian Youth Gathering urged people to return later Sunday to the Israeli embassy in Amman “to support the resistance in Gaza and demand the cancelation of the Jordanian Israeli peace treaty and cut all ties with Israel.”
In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab country, after Egypt in 1979, to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
“No to a Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory,” read one banner at Saturday’s embassy protest, where people have gathered every evening since the holy Muslim month of Ramadan began more than two weeks ago.
Security forces said on Sunday they had arrested a number of protesters 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Amman at the Beqaa refugee camp.
Public security spokesman Amer Al-Sartaawi said in a statement a “number of rioters” were arrested after “acts of rioting and vandalism, setting fires, and hurling stones at vehicles on the public road.”
Beqaa camp, home to more than 100,000 Palestinians, is one of six camps set up to house the influx of refugees fleeing the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967.
Jordan has 2.2 million people who have been registered by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Many have been granted Jordanian citizenship.
Hamas’s October attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel responded with a relentless military campaign that has so far killed 32,782 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
Calls for more Jordan protests against Gaza war, Israel ties
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Calls for more Jordan protests against Gaza war, Israel ties
Lebanon urges UNSC delegation to press Israel to respect ceasefire
- Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic
BEIRUT: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun urged a United Nations Security Council delegation on Friday to pressure Israel to respect a year-old ceasefire and to support his army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
Aoun “stressed the need to pressure the Israeli side to implement the ceasefire and withdraw, and expressed his hope for pressure from the delegation,” according to a statement from the presidency.
He also noted “Lebanon’s commitment to implementing international resolutions” and asked the envoys to support the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm non-government groups.
The Lebanese government ordered its military to fully disarm Hezbollah in August, and the army expects to complete the first phase of its plan by the end of the year.
The UN delegation visited Damascus on Thursday and after its meeting with Aoun was due to inspect the border area in southern Lebanon on Saturday, accompanied by US envoy Morgan Ortagus.
The visit comes as Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first direct talks in decades.
On Thursday, Information Minister Paul Morcos quoted Aoun calling the initial negotiations “positive” and stressing “the need for the language of negotiation — not the language of war — to prevail.”
That same day, Israel struck four southern Lebanese towns, saying it was targeting Hezbollah infrastructure including weapons depots to stop the group from rearming.
UN peacekeepers called the strikes “clear violations of Security Council resolution 1701,” which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The peacekeepers also said their vehicles were fired on by six men on three mopeds near Bint Jbeil on Thursday. There were no injuries in the incident.
“Attacks on peacekeepers are unacceptable and serious violations of resolution 1701,” the international force added.
Hezbollah refuses to disarm but has not responded to Israeli attacks since the ceasefire. It has, however, promised a response to the killing of its military chief in a strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs last month.
