Former Hamas leader calls for worldwide protests to support Palestinians

Former Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal called for protests across the Muslim world on Friday in support of the Palestinians and for the peopleof neighbouring countries to join the fight against Israel.

"[We must] head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday," Meshaal, who currently heads Hamas's diaspora office, said in a recorded statement sent to Reuters.

Meshaal said the governments and peopleof Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt have a bigger duty to support the Palestinians.

"Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan This is a moment of truth and the borders are close to you, you all know your responsibility," Meshaal said.

His rallying call came as Israel vowed to escalate its response to an attack by Hamas with a ground offensive, as Israeli fighter jets have struck hundreds of targets in Gaza City in recent days.

The show of force came after the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in Israel's history, as Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip rampaged through parts of southern Israel on Saturday.

At least 1,200 Israelis and 1,055 Palestinians have been killed, with Hamas believed to holding more than 100people hostage.

Meshaal became chief of Hamas in 1992 and survived an assassination attempt five years later when Mossad agents from Israel using Canadian passports poisoned him in Jordan. He stepped down as Hamas leader in 2012, and is now based in Qatar.

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Anger at Israeli embassy in Jordan

It was not immediately clear if his call would be heeded, but an outpouring of anger in Jordan against Israel fuelled a large rally on Tuesday in downtown Amman, where several thousand protesters chanted slogans in support of Hamas.

Jordan's King Abdullah said on Wednesday no peace was possible in the Middle East without the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"Our region will never be secure nor stable without achieving just and comprehensive peace on the basis of the two-state solution," the monarch said.

King Abdullah has since the start of the latest conflict been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic efforts with Western and regional leaders urging swift action to de-escalate the situation, officials say.

Officials said the monarch, whom U.S. President Joe Biden called, will voice the kingdom's concerns with U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was headed to the Mideast.

WATCH lKibbutz attack shocks Israeli military, first responders:

Israel puts horrors of Hamas attack on display

12 months ago

Duration 3:15

This video contains disturbing images | As the Israeli military showed the atrocities of the surprise attack by Hamas, many in southern Israel searched for safety anxious about more violence.

As Jordan sharesa border with the West Bank, its position is sensitive.

"A Palestinian independent and sovereign state should be on June 4th, 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and so that the cycles of killing, whose ultimate victims are innocent civilians, end," King Abdullah said.

Amman lost the West Bank including East Jerusalem to Israel during the 1967 war. Jordan's peace treaty with Israel isunpopular among many Jordan citizens.

The protesters who gathered Tuesday demanded the Jordanian government close the Israeli embassy in Amman and scrap the peace treaty. The Israeli embassy has long been a flashpoint of anti-Israel protests at times of turmoil in the Palestinian territories.

Erdogan warns of 'massacre' in Gaza

In Muslim-majority Turkey, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Israel's blockade and bombing of Gaza was a disproportionate response.

With Ankara offering to mediate, Erdogan and his foreign minister held calls with regional powers, the U.S. and others. However, Israel's envoy to Ankara has said it is too early to discuss mediation.

Speaking to his ruling AK Party in parliament, Erdogan said even war had a "morality" but the flare-up since the weekend had "very severely" violated that.

"Preventing people meeting their most fundamental needs and bombing housing where civilians live in short, conducting a conflict using every sort of shameful method is not a war, it's a massacre," he said, referring to Israel cutting off electricity and water to Gaza and destroying infrastructure.

Unlike the European Union, Canada and U.S., Ankara does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, though it has been working to mend ties with Israel in recent times after years of animosity.