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.
Jordanian police clash with protesters near Israel embassy
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Jordanian police clash with protesters near Israel embassy
- They chanted “No Zionist embassy on Jordanian land"
Israeli commando unit abducts Lebanese maritime student
- According to a Lebanese military source and based on shared CCTV footage, the operation involved 20 to 25 commandos
BEIRUT: A Lebanese maritime student was abducted in Batroun, northern Lebanon, by Israeli commandos, authorities said on Saturday
Axios news portal reported that “the abductee was taken to be questioned on Hezbollah’s naval activities,” citing an Israeli official.
Leaked information identified the abductee as Imad Amhaz, a student at the Maritime Sciences and Technology Institute in Batroun, who was in his parents’ house at the time of the incident.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency said an “unidentified military force carried out a sea landing on the shore of Batroun, went with all its weapons and equipment to a chalet near the beach, and kidnapped a Lebanese man.”
According to a Lebanese military source and based on shared CCTV footage, the operation involved 20 to 25 commandos.
Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transportation Ali Hamieh said that “the sea is under supervision, and we are waiting for the outcome of the investigations.”
Hamieh added that the Lebanese government will contact UNIFIL to know whether the operation was carried out in cooperation with the UN peacekeeping force.
A UNIFIL spokesperson said the force “has not been involved in facilitating any kidnapping or other violation of Lebanese sovereignty. Disinformation and false rumors are irresponsible and put peacekeepers at risk.”
An Israeli official told Axios that “the Israeli Navy SEALs captured Imad Amhaz — a senior member of Hezbollah’s naval force — in an operation in northern Lebanon.”
Lebanon accused Israel of carrying out the operation and violating Lebanese territorial waters, despite the presence of a UNIFIL maritime task force.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said one person was killed and 15 others were wounded on Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold.
The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the “Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout Mall ... in the southern suburbs of Beirut.”
A residential building was hit near the Galerie Semaan crossroads in Beirut’s southern suburb — an area struck for the first time.
Elsewhere, Israeli planes raided several buildings and apartments near the Imam Hussein Complex in Tyre, destroying them completely and injuring civilians.
Raids also targeted a house in Tebnine, near the governmental hospital, killing two people, severely injuring others, and significantly damaging the hospital and nearby buildings.
In Bekaa, the raids carried out by the Israeli military on Baalbek and its surroundings in the last 48 hours damaged the Roman wall outside the Temple of Baalbek, near the Gouraud Barracks, causing about 30 meters of the wall to collapse and severely damaging the historical monument.
Israel’s Channel 13 reported that “around 180 missiles have been launched from Lebanon toward the Galilee, Haifa and Acre since Saturday morning.”
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee claimed on X that Israel eliminated Mueen Moussa Ezzeddin, the commander of the coastal sector of Hezbollah, and Hassan Majid Dhiab, the artillery commander in the area, who was responsible for the launches toward the outskirts of Haifa on Thursday. He accused both of being “responsible for firing over 400 rocket shells toward Israeli territory over the past month.”
Adraee reported that “over the past 24 hours, (Israeli forces) targeted anti-tank missile launch sites, terrorists, military buildings, weapons depots, and Hezbollah command centers deep in and south of Lebanon.”
Israeli reconnaissance aircraft consistently operated in Lebanese airspace, particularly over Beirut, the southern suburbs, the southern region, Bekaa, and extending to the north.
The Israeli military reiterated its warnings to displaced individuals against returning to their homes.
The death toll resulting from Israeli attacks on Lebanon reached 2,897 with 13,150 injured as of Friday.
Additional raids targeted once again the Al-Qaa to Jousieh border crossing, which connects Lebanon to Syria, putting it completely out of service.
The crossing is among six legal crossings that connect Lebanon to Syria, and leads to the Al-Qusayr district in western Homs on the Syrian side.
The crossing had been previously put out of service about a week ago, when Israeli raids targeted it from the Syrian side, killing four members of the Syrian military intelligence.
Israel claims that it is bombing border crossings “because Hezbollah is using them to transport weapons from Syria to Lebanon.”
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “Israeli targets included most illegal land crossings to prevent the entry of supplies to Lebanon.
“There is ongoing Israeli aerial surveillance of crossings and the border area closely.”
The observatory said that since Sep. 26, “Israel has targeted the Syrian-Lebanese border with 31 raids, destroying many sites, putting several legal and illegal crossings out of service, and killing 28 people, including four Hezbollah members and four Syrians working with the militant party.”
It noted that “the Israeli raids put the main Masnaah-Jdeidet Yabous crossing between both countries out of service, as it was targeted twice,” adding that “the crossing is currently limited to pedestrians.”
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said the group targeted “the city of Safed and the Glilot base associated with Military Intelligence Unit 8200 in the outskirts of Tel Aviv, as well as the settlements of Dalton, Be’er Ya’akov, Sha’al, Yesud HaMa’ala, Bar Yohai (Safsaf), and the Kiryot area north of Haifa.”
Hezbollah announced that it launched “an aerial assault with a fleet of attack drones on the Palmachim Airbase, south of Tel Aviv.”
Additionally, it targeted “the Zevulon military industries base north of Haifa with qualitative missile salvo twice in a row, and it conducted an aerial attack with a squadron of attack drones on the Shraga base north of the city of Acre.”
Sirens sounded in 20 towns in northern Israel following a missile barrage from southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military announced that it “detected 15 missile launches from southern Lebanon and successfully intercepted the majority of them.”
Meanwhile, Israeli media reported “explosions heard in Acre, Nahariya, the Haifa Bay, and several towns in Galilee.”
The Israeli Air Force said it was “pursuing several drones that breached the airspace from Lebanon.”
Israeli media reported that the “David’s Sling system was activated to intercept missiles launched from Lebanon toward the Tel Aviv area.”
Hezbollah rockets targeted a building in the Arab town of Al-Tira, located approximately 25 km northeast of Tel Aviv, resulting in injuries to 19 individuals on Friday night.
Lebanon says one dead, 15 wounded in Israel strike on south Beirut
- The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning
BEIRUT: Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and 15 others were wounded Saturday in an Israeli strike on Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold, which has been hard hit by the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The ministry announcement came as the official National News Agency said the "Israeli enemy launched a raid near Karout Mall... in the southern suburbs of Beirut".
The strike was not preceded by an Israeli evacuation warning.
According to an AFP photographer, the strike targeted an abandoned building, which includes a car dealership on the ground floor.
The area was cordoned of by the army and security forces.
Beirut's southern suburbs have been heavily bombed by Israel since its war with Hezbollah erupted in September.
The war has killed more than 1,900 people in Lebanon since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on figures from Lebanon's health ministry.
Archaeologists unearth an ancient Middle Kingdom Egyptian tomb in Luxor
- Some items such as jewelry in women’s burials were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads
CAIRO: Archaeologists from Egypt and the United States unearthed an ancient tomb with 11 sealed burials near the famed city of Luxor, Egyptian authorities said.
Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement Friday the tomb, which dates back to the Middle Kingdom (1938 B.C.-1630 B.C.), was found in the South Asasif necropolis, next to the Temple of Hatshepsut on the Nile’s West Bank in Luxor.
The joint Egyptian-American mission excavating the necropolis found coffins for men, women and children, suggesting that it was a family tomb used for generations during the 12th Dynasty and the beginning of the 13th Dynasty, said Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt.
He said ancient floods destroyed most of the burials’ wooden coffins and linen wrappings.
However, some items such as jewelry in women’s burials were found intact, including a finely crafted necklace with 30 amethyst beads and two cylindrical agate beads framing a hippo-head amulet, according to the statement.
Catherine Blakeney, chief American archaeologist with the mission, said they found two copper mirrors, one with a lotus-shaped handle, and the second with a unique design of Hathor, goddess of the sky, women, fertility and love in ancient Egypt.
The discovery came as Egypt has doubled efforts to attract more tourists, a significant source of foreign currency for the cash-strapped North African country. Tourism, which depends heavily on Egypt’s rich Pharaonic artifacts, suffered a long downturn after the political turmoil and violence that followed a 2011 uprising.
Last month, the Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega project near the famed Giza Pyramids, opened 12 halls exhibiting Pharaonic artifacts for visitors as a trial ahead of the yet-unannounced official opening.
Israel army says intercepted three drones over Red Sea
- Iraqi pro-Iran groups say carried out drone attack on Israel’s Eilat
Jerusalem: The Israeli military said on Saturday it had intercepted three drones launched from the east over the Red Sea, without specifying where they came from.
“A short while ago, three UAVs that were launched from the east were intercepted over the Red Sea.... the UAVs were intercepted prior to crossing into Israeli territory,” the military said in a statement.
Iraqi pro-Iran groups say carried out drone attack
A coalition of pro-Iran groups in Iraq said it carried out four drone attacks on the Israeli resort of Eilat on Saturday, after Israel said it intercepted three drones approaching from the east.
In a statement, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq it was behind the attacks on what it called “four vital targets” in the resort on Israel’s Red Sea coast, all conducted within one hour.
Jordan warns of increasing regional unrest and vows to protect its airspace, borders
CAIRO: Jordan on Saturday warned against intercepting its airspace and the infringement of its borders as unrest increases in the region.
Jordan reaffirms its “rejection of attempts by some regional parties to violate its airspace, especially by launching drones that some of which have entered the Kingdom’s airspace and parts had fallen inside Jordanian territory,” said government spokesperson Mohammad Momani according to Petra news agency.
The spokesperson pointed out that two incidents of this sort had occurred recently in the governorates of Irbid and Jerash, describing it as “a threat that Jordan was dealing with within the military rules of engagement, and that it was taking all necessary measures to confront these violations.”
The minister warned of “increasing regional unrest, reiterating that Jordan will not be a conflict zone for any party, and will not allow warplanes, missiles or drones to pass through its airspace.”
