AMMAN, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah condemned Israeli raids on Gaza that killed at least 225 people on Saturday, saying they would only inflame regional tensions. Thousands of people marched in protest in Jordan, the second Arab country to sign a peace agreement with Israel. A palace statement said the monarch condemned the attacks and demanded an immediate stop to military action and to Israel's "siege on innocent civilians and women and children". "Violence will only lead to aggravating the situation and will not deliver security to Israel," the monarch was quoted as saying in the statement. Israel said its attacks on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip were a response to rocket salvoes. Many Jordanians are of Palestinian origin and thousands marched in the capital of the pro-U.S. kingdom crying for the deaths in Gaza to be avenged with suicide attacks. About 8,000 protesters, mainly from Jordan's mainstream Muslim Brotherhood and smaller opposition groups, marched in one of the biggest anti-Israel demonstrations in recent years. Defying government curbs on street marches, thousands also demonstrated inside many of Jordan's squalid Palestinian refugee camps and poor districts of the capital under the watchful eyes of the authorities. Jordanian officials fear the Israeli assault could mean an end to peace moves between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. They fear it also broadens the popularity of the Islamist movement among poor Jordanians, many of them living in refugee camps and disenchanted with the U.S.-led peace process. The demonstrators accused Arab rulers of complicity with Israel and standing idly by as ordinary Gazans are killed. (Writing by Suleiman al-Khalidi, editing by Matthew Tostevin)
Sudanese and Palestinians living in Sudan demonstrate against the Israeli air strikes in Gaza, outside the U.N. offices in Khartoum December 27, 2008. Israeli warplanes and helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza ...
Egypt
