Amman - Thousands of Jordanians demonstrated outside the Egyptian embassy in Cairo Sunday to press Egyptian authorities to re- open the Rafah crossing point with the Gaza Strip.

"Our sit-in before the Egyptian embassy today has the primary aim of telling the Egyptian regime ... that the Rafah crossing point should be re-opened," said Zaki Bani Ershaid, secretary general of the Islamic Action Front (IAF).

Other demonstrators urged the governments of Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have concluded peace treaties with Israel, to "sever ties" with the Jewish state.

The demonstration was one of as series to protest the ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip and to express solidarity with beleaguered Palestinians there.

Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah II on Sunday reiterated his appeal to the world community to force Israel to halt its attack on the Palestinian territory which so far killed at least 285 people.

"The peace values inspired by our religious festivities should force the world to move immediately to ensure a cessation of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip as well as an end to the siege imposed on the Palestinian people there," the monarch told Christian leaders in Jordan.

"Israel should stop its aggression immediately because violence will not bring it security and peace," King Abdullah said. dpa