BEIRUT, Lebanon – Police fired tear gas on Sunday at scores of demonstrators rallying against Israel's ground offensive in Gaza as the protesters tried to reach the U.S. Embassy compound north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

Thousands also held an anti-Israel demonstration in Turkey as news coverage of the invasion, launched late Saturday, dominated Arab satellite television stations. Many of them, including Al-Jazeera, are showing live footage of the Gaza Strip and airing interviews with wounded Palestinians.

Israel's weeklong aerial bombardment of Gaza and the start of the ground offensive Saturday have sparked strong condemnation across the Muslim and Arab world.

Thousands in cities from Tehran to Damascus have taken to the streets to protest the attacks, which have killed about 500 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,600, according to Gaza officials.

In some cases, the protests of the past week were as directed against Arab governments – especially Egypt and Jordan – as much as Israel, with many voicing criticism of their perceived inaction or lack of sufficient support of the Palestinians.

Israel says the aim of the operation is to stop the Palestinian militant Hamas group from firing rockets at southern Israeli towns.

Lebanese police first used water hoses to try to push about 250 demonstrators away from the U.S. Embassy. But when that didn't work, they fired tear gas, said Lebanese security officials.

Five civilians and one policeman were lightly injured in the clash, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Later in the day, thousands of supporters of Hamas and Lebanon's Islamic Group held a sit-in outside the U.N. building in central Beirut. Dozens of riot police stood guard.

"This battle will end a (peace) settlement forever," Hamas' representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told the protesters. "This battle will show who are the men. Are they those who kiss (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert? ... or those who are prepared to die?" he said in an apparent reference to Palestinian leaders who hold peace talks with Israel.

Hamas is opposed to any peace settlement with Israel and calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

In Turkey, more than 5,000 people held an anti-Israel rally in Istanbul, waving Palestinian flags and burning effigies of Olmert and President George W. Bush. Also in Istanbul, club-wielding police broke up a small demonstration by protesters who hurled eggs at the Israeli Consulate, the private Dogan news agency reported. There were no reports of arrests or injuries.

Also Sunday, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan – the only two Mideast Arab nations that signed peace treaties with Israel – condemned the ground offensive in Gaza and called for ending Israel's attacks.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also denounced Israel's ground offensive as "brutal aggression" in his harshest words yet in describing Israel's assault on his Hamas rivals in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the leader of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, discussed the situation in Gaza with visiting chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, the group's Al-Manar TV said.

Al-Manar did not give further details but said Nasrallah and Jalili, who arrived here Saturday from neighboring Syria, discussed "ways of ending this aggression."

Hezbollah, which is a strong ally of Hamas, possesses a formidable arsenal of rockets and missiles that bloodied Israel during a monthlong war in 2006. Hezbollah has not threatened to join Hamas in its current battle with Israel, but Nasrallah said last week that his men are on alert in case Israel attacks Lebanon. -AP