Special report: Palestine-Israel Conflicts  

    AMMAN, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Jordan has strongly condemned the Israeli ground assault against the Gaza Strip, calling the Jewish action "a dangerous escalation," local daily The Jordan Times reported on Sunday.

    Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Nasser Judeh was quoted as saying that "we condemned this aggression" which would have very serious consequences and adversely affects the possibility to achieve security and stability in the region.

    The escalation in Gaza has led to killing a large number of civilians, including women, children and elderly people, and wounding many others, Judeh denounced.

    The official reiterated that such operations would not lead to the security for Israel, stressing that achieve security and peace for all peoples of the region is only through the establishment of a Palestinian state on Palestinian national soil.

    "We demanded Israel from the very beginning to immediately stop these operations and the excessive violence against the Gaza Strip. We demanded that the situation be not escalated, but today we saw dangerous escalation and raids against mosques."

    He, meanwhile, expressed that Jordan continues to make every possible effort with the international community and Arab states "in order to achieve the immediate cessation of these actions as where the situation becomes very serious."

    He called upon the international community to "shoulder its legal and moral responsibilities" to stop the Israeli military escalation and all acts of aggression.

    Meanwhile, Jordan's Foreign Minister Salaheddin al-Bashir on Saturday summoned the ambassadors of the five permanent Security Council members to the kingdom, condemning Israel's "unjustifiable military escalation" and calling for their immediate and urgent action to stop the Israeli attacks which resulted in a large number of innocents.

    The continuing of violence and aggression will exacerbate the crisis and the international community must shoulder its responsibilities towards this humanitarian catastrophe, he stressed.

    On Saturday, Israel's ground troops entered the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for the second phase of its offensive on the militant group after eight days of airstrikes.

    Israel's military action, aimed at retaliating for Hamas militants' rocket attacks into Israel, has killed at least 460 Palestinians and wounded more than 2,300 others in the past week.