Amman: Protests against the Israeli bombings of Gaza swept across the world. In Amman, Jordan police fired teargas at angry protesters yesterday to prevent them from approaching the Israeli embassy in a demonstration, a security official said.

In Istanbul, thousands of Turks demonstrated against the deadly Israeli offensive and burned Israeli flags.

“Israeli murderers, get out of Palestine,” “Muslims, don’t sleep, defend Palestine” the protesters chanted as they waved Palestinian flags and burned Israeli ones, an AFP photographer said.

Meanwhile, a Moroccan law student injured during clashes between police and protesters following a demonstration against Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip has died, newspapers said yesterday.

In Egypt, police detained 20 members of the Muslim Brotherhood ahead of demonstrations.

Hundreds of riot police and agents were deployed around key mosques in Cairo before the protest, which was due to take place after Friday prayers.

A Reuters photographer said police agents were rounding up civilians outside one of Cairo’s prominent mosques near the Ramses railway station downtown. In Afghanistan, thousands took to the streets against Israel’s strikes, chanting slogans against the Jewish state and calling for the defense of Muslims.

About 1,000 demonstrators in the western city of Herat ripped up an Israeli flag, torched banners and set alight an effigy of Israeli President Shimon Peres, an AFP reporter at the scene witnessed.

They shouted “Death to Israel” and “Death to infidels” and demanded a halt to the strikes that started a week ago.

The protesters also chanted slogans against the United States — a key ally of Israel — and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, which relies on US support to fight an insurgency led by the extremist Taleban group.

“We think this is a war between Islam and infidels,” local religious leader Farooq Hussaini told reporters.

“We have announced jihad in Herat province against those who recognise Israel as a state and support them,” he said, apparently referring to the mainly Western soldiers deployed in Afghanistan to fight the insurgency.

Anger swept across Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, tens of thousands of Muslims carrying banners and Palestinian flags staged a peaceful protest in the capital Jakarta yesterday to condemn Israeli airstrikes, police said.

The demonstrators gathered in the city center to pray for the safety of Palestinians before marching to the US embassy, punching their fists in the air and chanting “Allahu Akbar.”

The Prosperous Justice Party had said it hoped to attract $200,000 people for the protest, which came as Israeli jets continued to pound militant targets for the seventh straight day.

“This is to show the world that Indonesians possess solidarity and understand the sufferings of the Palestinians,” the party’s deputy head Hilman Rosyad Syihab said. The group hoped to raise 200,000 dollars for the Palestinians from the rally, he added.

“They want to protest against the Israeli airstrikes. We can handle the large number as long as they don’t become aggressive and throw stones or bottles,” national police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said.

There was heavy security for the rally, with about 500 police officers deployed, most of them outside the US Embassy, local news website Detikcom reported. Two armored police vehicles equipped with water cannons also stood by.

In Australia, thousands of Muslims staged a protest in Sydney after several local mosques urged worshippers to attend the rally rather than traditional prayers.

Bearing pro-Palestinian flags and banners, a crowd of more than 4,000 flocked to Parry Park in the city’s Islamic heartland to demonstrate and pray for the victims of renewed violence in the Middle East.

Five local mosques had closed their doors on the first traditional day of worship in the new year, asking Muslims to attend the vigil instead.