Riot police fired teargas to push back hundreds of Jordanian demonstrators marching on the Israeli embassy in Amman on Sunday, in protest over Israel’s operation in Gaza, Reuters reported.
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.
The protesters reportedly 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 peace treaty with Israel.
The Israeli embassy, where protesters gather daily, has long been a flashpoint of anti-Israel protests in Jordan. The authorities allow protests but say they cannot tolerate any attempt to storm the embassy.
Jordan signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994 but many locals are against the treaty. In addition, the Jordanian parliament, which is made up mostly of Islamists, remains anti-Israel and its members have more than once called to annul the peace treaty.
The Jordanian parliament has in the past approved a proposal to establish a committee to re-evaluate all formal ties with Israel, including the peace agreement.
That decision does not necessarily mean that the peace accords with Israel will be annulled, as such a decision requires the approval of the government, the royal palace and the council advising Jordan's King Abdullah II.