Violent incidents reported at several anti-Israel protests

                           

Hundreds of thousands of pro-Palestinian protestors took to the worlds' streets against Israel's air offensive targeting Hamas. At demonstrations in Asia, Europe and America, rallies drew large crowds. In Tehran, a crowd of about 6,000 marched from prayers at Tehran University to Palestine Square, chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" and burning Israeli flags. Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned Israel that entering Gaza "by land will be the biggest mistake of the Zionist regime." Iran is a major backer of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, giving it millions of dollars.

In Egypt, authorities clamped down hard to prevent protests after Friday prayers. Hundreds of riot police surrounded Cairo's main Al-Azhar Mosque, where a rally had been called, and scuffled with would-be protesters, keeping most from approaching. Police also arrested 40 members of the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood that had called for protests. More than 3,000 people marched in the northern Sinai city of el-Arish.

In Jordan, police fired volleys of tear gas and scuffled with protesters who tried to reach the Israeli Embassy in Amman. A few of the protesters threw stones at police, but the security forces dispersed the group, arresting several. About 30,000 Jordanians gathered at a stadium in Amman shouting their support for Gaza and calling for the abolition of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty signed in 1994. More than 10,000 Muslims marched through Indonesia's capital Jakarta to protest against the bombing raids in Gaza, aiming fake missiles labeled "Target: Tel Aviv, Israel" at the US Embassy building.

Protests were also held after Friday prayers in other cities in the world's most populous Muslim country, in what was the largest turnout since Israel began the operation. In the Afghan capital of Kabul, about 3,000 people gathered outside a prominent mosque, according to police estimates. Men in the crowd threw stones and shoes at an effigy of US president George W. Bush. Dozens of demonstrators gathered in the Philippines capital Manila, carrying placards saying Israel is a "butcher of children." In Turkey, Israel's closest ally in the region, some 5,000 people denounced the Israeli raids outside a mosque in Istanbul, burning Israeli and American flags and reciting funeral prayers for the victims. In Syria, some 2,000 marched in a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, carrying Palestinian flags and chanting "jihad will unite us." Some 2,000 protesters in the Pakistani city of Karachi burned US flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans, and several hundred of them marched on the US Consulate, senior police official Ameer Sheikh told the news agency AP. "They were in a mood to attack," he said. "They were carrying bricks, stones and clubs."

Around 30,000 people demonstrated in the Belgian capital Brussels, some carrying models of bloodied Gaza children. A group of youth overturned several cars and smashed windows of buildings along the route. Anti-Semitic posters were brandished and slogans such as "Israel - assassins" shouted. Belgian police had to disperse some hardcore demonstrators.

More than 1,000 protestors formed a human chain to march through Rome as Italy's defense minister warned Muslims against provocative prayers in public squares. More than 100,000 people marched through Spain's capital on Sunday calling for Israel to announce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The protest in Madrid was the largest of many demonstrations across Europe expressing both support and opposition for the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Protesters filled downtown boulevards carrying banners saying "Peace," "SOS Gaza," placards with the word "Gaza" above a red-stained hand and mock blood-spattered bodies of children. Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem's mother Pilar, also an actress, was among speakers who addressed the crowd. "The Spanish government has to do something. The Gaza Strip is now practically a concentration camp," she said.