Jordan bans protests in support of Gaza after attack plot foiled: Israeli media

Jordan has reportedly banned weekly protests in support of Gaza, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan said on Friday, citing Palestinian sources close to Hamas.

Kan said that the decision to ban the protests was related to the Jordanian authorities announcement last week that they had foiled a plot to commit armed attacks in the country, arresting 16 suspects.

Jordanian media said that the suspects were plotting attacks involving rockets and drones.

Jordan’s minister of state for media, Mohammed al-Momani claimed that three of them were arrested in February 2025 after producing short-range rockets “with foreign support”. They had also planned to build drones, he said, but were caught before managing to do so.

Jordanian state media broadcast confessions by some of the suspects, who said that they were members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On Thursday, the Muslim Brotherhood said in a post on X: "Given the tense atmosphere and the state of societal mobilisation and incitement that has prevailed during the past few days towards the activities supporting Gaza, we announce the postponement of the central event scheduled to be held at the al-Husseini [mosque] on Friday, 18 April.”

Protests usually take place every week on Friday, and feature a heavy presence of the Palestinian flag. On Thursday, Jordanian state media announced a ban on the public display of “foreign flags”.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but more than half of its population is of Palestinian origin and there has been a great deal of anger in the country ever since Israel began its brutal war on Gaza in October 2023.