Protests in support of Palestinians in Amman, Beirut, Baghdad and Tehran

As Jordanian and Egyptian leaders warn against a transfer of Palestinians to their countries, tens of thousands of people demonstrated across the Middle East on Friday in support of the Palestinians.

In Jordan, a neighboring country of Israel which has made peace with the Jewish state, more than 10,000 people gathered in the center of Amman, near the Hussein Grand Mosque, at the call of the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood and several left-wing and youth groups. On Friday morning, vehicles in a convoy attempted to approach the border with Israel, before being dissuaded by security forces. More than half populated by Palestinians, refugees from previous Israeli-Arab wars, the Hashemite kingdom fears a new exodus of Palestinians, in the event of a serious deterioration in the situation in the occupied West Bank. “The crisis should not spread to neighboring countries and aggravate the refugee issue,” warned King Abdullah II, who received the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, on Friday. The monarch warned against “any attempt to displace Palestinians from all Palestinian lands or provoke their displacement,” according to a statement from the royal palace.

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In Baghdad, tens of thousands of Iraqis gathered in Tahrir Square to chant “No to occupation! No to America!” Gathered at the call of Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr and brandishing Palestinian and Iraqi flags, they trampled and burned Israeli flags.

In Egypt, videos on social media showed hundreds of demonstrators chanting their solidarity with Gaza at the al-Azhar mosque. “Arab and Muslim countries have the duty and responsibility to urgently provide humanitarian aid and relief to the Palestinians in Gaza,” said al-Azhar University, the highest institution of Sunni Islam.

In Beirut, more than a thousand people expressed solidarity with the Palestinians during a demonstration organized in the southern suburbs of the capital, a stronghold of Hezbollah, an ally of Iran.

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In Tehran and several other Iranian cities, protesters waved Iranian, Palestinian and Hezbollah flags, holding banners that read: “Down with America” and “Down with Israel.” There were also a thousand of them taking to the streets in Algiers.

In Saudi Arabia, where demonstrations are banned, an AFP journalist saw a police officer handcuffing a worshiper who had interrupted Friday prayers by calling out to the imam, “Talk about Palestine! Gaza is under bombs!” This place “is not made for politics,” the imam replied before the man was arrested. Radically different scene at the Grand Mosque of Mecca, where social networks report a sermon from the imam calling for “the liberation of the al-Aqsa mosque” in Jerusalem. Proof that the rapprochement with Israel, initiated in recent months by Riyadh, is having difficulty passing through among certain Saudis, attached to the Palestinian cause.