Egypt and Jordan crack down on anti-Israel rallies

By Richard Meares

LONDON (Reuters) - Jordanian and Egyptian riot police cracked down on Friday on protesters demanding an end to Israel's attacks on Gaza and to ties with the Jewish state.

Israel's week-old offensive has sparked daily protests around the world and Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, also saw angry demonstrations in Kashmir, Turkey and Iraq.

Jordanian police fired tear gas to push back hundreds of people marching on the Israeli embassy in the capital Amman.

Chanting "No Jewish embassy on Arab land," worshippers set off from a mosque to the nearby Israeli embassy. Police fired tear gas at around 1,500 demonstrators, forcing them to retreat, and beat and arrested several of them.

Protesters chanted slogans backing the Islamic militant group Hamas that controls Gaza. "Revenge ... revenge ... Hamas, bomb Tel Aviv," they shouted.

Watched by riot police, at least 60,000 people headed later to Amman sports stadium for the largest rally in decades by the opposition Muslim Brotherhood. Its leader told a cheering crowd Palestinians should intensify an uprising against Israel.

In Cairo, police beat opposition Islamists with batons when they tried to stage a rally downtown, witnesses said.

A rally in the costal town of El-Arish in North Sinai turned violent when protesters tried to force their way through a police cordon.

"People charged at the police and pelted them with rocks," a Reuters witness said. "Police started rounding people up and beating them."

Egypt's protests were called by the Brotherhood, the main opposition group which has historical and ideological ties to Hamas.

"This will not prevent us from declaring our anger and expressing our solidarity with the Palestinian people," Mohamed Habib, the Brotherhood deputy leader, told Reuters. He said Egypt should break off diplomatic and economic ties with Israel.

"SELL-OUT" CALLS

Egypt and Jordan both have peace treaties with Israel, and their diplomatic ties with it often prompt accusations of a sell-out from other Muslims and Arabs.

Protesters in countries such as Lebanon, Yemen and Iran accuse Egypt of cooperating with Israel by refusing to open its border crossing with the Palestinian coastal strip.

Israel's offensive, one of the worst in 60 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has killed more than 420 people. Israel says the attacks aim to stop Hamas firing rockets on towns in southern Israel, where four Israelis have died.