Sana'a/Amman  - Demonstrators in their thousands took to streets in the Arab world following Friday prayers to show their support for the people of the Gaza Strip and denounce the nearly two- week Israeli military offensive there.

Demonstrators in Doha, Baghdad and Amman carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of Gaza. Others decried the Egyptian government, accusing it of indirectly supporting Israel by keeping its border to the salient closed.

Amman- Arab stock markets rebounded this week after the year- end holiday, but financial analysts said Friday that the rally could be short-lived when annual results of listed firms start to come out.

"I believe the rebound was in response to improving performance on world markets and the jump in oil prices that accompanied the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip," an Amman-based portfolio manager told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Amman/Doha/Baghdad - Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to streets in the Arab world following Friday prayers to show their support for the people of Gaza and denounce the nearly two-week Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrators in Doha, Baghdad and Amman carried Palestinian flags and chanted slogans in support of Gaza.

The largest demonstrations took place in Amman, where tens of thousands of demonstrators carried photos of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who expelled his country's Israeli ambassador.

Amman - Hundreds of Jordanians, some of them carrying flowers, demonstrated outside the Venezuelan embassy Thursday to thank Caracas for severing ties with Israel in protest over the high casualty toll of civilians in the ongoing attack on the Gaza Strip.

The participants chanted slogans and raised placards praising the step taken by President Hugo Chavez and urging Arab countries with diplomatic ties with the Jewish state to follow Venezuela's lead.

Amman - Jordan and the European Union on Tuesday reached agreement on setting up a "joint mechanism" for delivering humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip as the Israeli offensive into the salient continued its eleventh day.

Amman  - Jordanian police on Friday used batons and teargas to disperse thousands of demonstrators who tried to reach the Israeli embassy to protest the continuing airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

The clash was the first between demonstrators and police in Jordan since the start of the Israeli offensive last Saturday, when the Israeli embassy in Amman was placed under heavy security.