(For more background see: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/archives/jordan.htm).

[Jerusalem Post Newswire - 11 May]: Amman police used tear gas and dogs today to break up a demonstration by Moslem worshipers in support of the Palestinians, Israel Radio reported.

Thousands of worshipers left the city's mosques following afternoon prayers and tried to stage a protest march, but police blocked their way and employed tear gas grenades and attack dogs when they would not disperse. Two demonstrators were arrested.

In Jerusalem, Friday prayers on the Temple Mount mosques passed peacefully. There were minor scuffles before the prayers between youths and police, because worshipers under age 25 were denied entry to the Mount. Three youths were arrested.

Amman, Jordan - May 11, 2001 There is excessive violence being used at this moment by Jordanian security troops against demonstrators in Al Mahata, Sweileh, and Al Hashmi. Tanks, batons, and tear gas are being applied excessively to peaceful demonstrators seeking to protest the establishment of "Israel". These demonstrations have been called for by the Muslim Brotherhood initially but many regular folks joined in. I have eyewitness reports of excessive tear gas and women being beaten and arrested in Al Hashimi. I have other eyewitness reports of excessive violence used against demonstrators in Sweileh. The government had warned that it would oppress demonstrations savagely, and you know as far as that goes, Arab regimes always keep their word.

Ibrahim Alloush - Amman

AMMAN, May 11 (Reuters) - Hundreds of angry Jordanians fought riot police on Friday after authorities sealed off most of the capital's downtown area to foil an Islamist-organised outdoor anti-Israel rally.

Scores of young people were injured and several arrested as police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse people, some of whom hurled stones, witnesses said.

The authorities earlier deployed armoured troops carriers and spread hundreds of anti-riot police on main streets to seal entrances leading to the site of the planned rally in the downtown Mahata area.

The powerful Islamic Action Front (IAF), the country's largest political grouping, had called its supporters to take part in the rally in defiance of a government ban on street demonstrations and rallies.

The Islamists and leftist opposition groups say the government's decision is illegal and a violation of their constitutional right of expression.

"We are not defying anyone but we insist on exercising our constitutional right to express ourselves peacefully," Abdul-Latif Arabiat, head of the Islamist Action Front, told Reuters before the clashes.

Friday's clampdown is the toughest handling of anti-Israeli protests since popular sympathy with the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation spilled last year into the largest street demonstrations in over a decade.

The Islamist rally was called to mark the 53rd anniversary of the Nakba, or catastrophe, marking Israel's establisment and during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced out or fled their homes.

Islamist sources said scuffles broke out betwen Arabiat and other prominent Islamist leaders with the police as they tried to resist being turned back away from the site of the rally.

Witnesses earlier said anti-riot police used teargas and dogs to break up an Islamist march in support of Palestinians after Friday prayers in Amman.

Qatari Jazeera satellite station said its Amman producer Tareq Ayoub was arrested after the station broadcast footage of the police attack on Moslem worshippers.

Hundreds of worshippers, chanting Islam's rallying cry of "Allahu Akbar," or God is Greatest, followed a call by the Muslim Brotherhood group by taking to the streets after praying at a mosque in the Amman suburb of Sweileh.

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, is home to 1.6 million Palestinian refugees. A majority of Jordan's five million population are of Palestinian origin.

(JERUSALEM (AP -- 11 May, 12:22 pm): Israeli forces moved deep into Palestinian territory in a retaliatory raid Friday, and Israeli officials rejected freezing settlement construction as part of a proposed cease-fire deal.

The proposal, by a U.S.-led international commission looking into the fighting, won praise Thursday from Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said it ``may give us a launch pad'' to start a new Mideast initiative.

Also Friday, a pipe bomb exploded near the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem's walled Old City, police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said. He said two people were lightly wounded.

In the Gaza Strip, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli troops who fired live ammunition at several dozen stone throwers. In a West Bank gun battle, two Palestinians were seriously wounded.

At daybreak Friday, Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into the Deir El Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, flattening five homes and a Palestinian police station and firing machine guns, after several hand grenades were thrown at a nearby army outpost. The army said those who threw the grenades fled into the police station.

Twenty-seven people, all members of the same clan, were made homeless in the Israeli incursion 700 yards into Palestinian territory - the deepest since field commanders last week were given a free hand to carry out such raids.

About four hours after the incursion, several Palestinians searched the rubble for money and jewelry they had left behind in the hasty escape. Israeli troops fired in the direction of the civilians and several journalists from a tank-mounted machine gun, pinning them down for about half an hour. The army said troops only fired into the air to prevent Palestinian police from rebuilding the station. No one was hurt.

Since last week, Israeli soldiers have entered Palestinian areas about 25 times, killing five Palestinians and wounding dozens, Palestinian police said. Troops razed about 60 houses and hundreds of acres of farmland, said the Palestinian police chief, Brig. Gen. Abdel Razek Majaida.

In a telephone call to The Associated Press, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO group, claimed responsibility for the grenade attack, saying it came in retaliation for the killing of a 4-month-old Palestinian girl earlier this week by Israeli tank fire.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel does not intend to recapture Palestinian territory. He said the incursions are short-term and aimed at achieving security goals.

Since fighting erupted Sept. 28, 438 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 77 on the Israeli side.

Israel, meanwhile, rejected recommendations by the international commission that it freeze Jewish settlement construction as part of a truce agreement. The commission's report asks both sides to stop the violence.

Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said the Palestinians accepted the plan and hoped Israel would do the same, to ``put an end to this nightmare.''

Israeli Cabinet minister Danny Naveh, who often speaks for the government, said Friday that halting construction ``is impossible.'' He said the building was meant to accommodate natural growth in the settlements.

A poll in the Maariv daily indicated that 55 percent of Israelis approve a freeze in exchange for a truce, while 39 percent are opposed. The Gallup poll questioned 850 Israeli adults and quoted a 4 percent margin of error.

Palestinians say Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza are illegal. They want to set up a state in those areas and demand that the settlements be removed. Palestinian leaders often refer to settlement construction as Israeli aggression.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres has suggested in talks with European leaders that Israel limit construction to the existing borders of settlements, without seizing new land, the Haaretz daily said.

However, Science Minister Matan Vilnai, a member of the Labor party in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's broad-based unity government, said Peres was referring to construction within the master plans of the settlements, not their current built-up areas.

Many settlements have master plans encompassing territories many times the size of the current enclaves.

DEIR EL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP - 11 May, 1:47pm) - Israeli bulldozers flattened a police station and five homes Friday in the deepest foray into Palestinian territory since field commanders last week were given a free hand to carry out such retaliatory raids.

In Jerusalem, a pipe bomb exploded in a flowerbed on the promenade leading to the Jaffa Gate of the walled Old City, and two Polish tourists were slightly injured, police said.

In the past seven days, there have been more than two dozen Israeli incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip in which Israeli troops razed 60 homes and hundreds of acres of farmland, Palestinian police said. Four Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in the raids.

Palestinians accused Israel of systematically slicing away at the Palestinian areas. ``We might now be witnessing the gradual undoing of the peace process,'' said Palestinian commentator Ghassan Khatib.

Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said he had no intention of retaking land handed to the Palestinians in interim peace accords. He said the incursions are short-term and aimed at achieving security goals. The army would not say how many raids it has carried out.

Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumbled into the Deir El Balah refugee camp at daybreak Friday after several hand grenades were thrown from a passing car at a nearby army post, lightly injuring two soldiers. As tanks fired machine guns, bulldozers flattened five homes belonging to the Al Holi clan and a Palestinian police station.

The army said those who threw the grenades had sought refuge in the station.

Twenty-seven members of the Al Holi clan were made homeless. ``I didn't even have time to wash my face,'' Saher Al Holi said. ``I just grabbed the children, my wife and ran.''

Several hours later, Palestinian police climbed atop the ruins of their station, salvaging black military boots and blankets. Al Holi and some of his relatives picked through the rubble of their homes, hoping to retrieve money and jewelry. Other family members pitched white tents provided by the United Nations.

Suddenly, shots were fired from a machine gun mounted on an Israeli tank about 600 yards away. Civilians and several journalists threw themselves to the ground, ducking for cover. There was intermittent fire for about half an hour, but no one was injured. The army said soldiers shot in the air to keep Palestinian policemen from rebuilding their station.

Also in Gaza, at the Karni crossing, a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops who fired live ammunition at several dozen stone throwers.

Since fighting erupted in late September, 438 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and 77 on the Israeli side.

Near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Israeli tanks shelled empty buildings serving as cover for Palestinian gunmen who shot at Israeli forces. Several gunmen wearing black ski masks rushed out of the doorway of a high-rise, but quickly retreated under Israeli fire. Two Palestinians were seriously wounded.

Israeli tanks also shelled Al Khader village in the West Bank, witnesses said.

The fighting came a day after the Palestinians reaffirmed that they accepted without conditions a truce proposal made by an international commission.

The panel, headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, said both sides must take steps to halt the fighting, along the lines of a U.S. cease-fire deal brokered in October, and that Israel must freeze settlement construction.

Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday praised the findings, saying the panel produced ``a very fine report.'' He said the report ``may also give us a launch pad to start a new initiative'' in the Middle East.

However, Israeli Cabinet minister Danny Naveh said Friday that freezing construction in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip was ``impossible.'' He said Israel must accommodate natural population growth in the settlements where about 200,000 Israelis live.

The Palestinians want the West Bank and Gaza for a future state and have demanded that the settlements be dismantled. Much of the world regards the settlements as illegal under international law.

A survey published Friday indicated 55 percent of Israelis favor a settlement freeze in exchange for a truce, while 39 percent are opposed. The Gallup poll questioned 850 Israeli adults and quoted a margin of error of 4 percentage points.