At least 1,000 people took to the streets of the Jordanian capital on Wednesday to protest Israel`s blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Waving Jordanian flags, demonstrators marched peacefully from the headquarters of the opposition Islamic Action Front (IAF) party to the parliament building in Amman`s city centre.

The protesters carried banners reading, `Lifting the blockade is a duty and necessity... Yes for resistance,` and `Gaza will never collapse and the siege will be broken.`

`We call on the Arab nation to stand and press the Zionist enemy to lift the unjust blocked,` IAF secretary general Zaki Bani Rsheid told reporters.

Israel has imposed sanctions on Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power last year in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million residents.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered Israel`s crossings to remain closed on Wednesday after militants in Gaza continued to fire rockets against southern Israel on Tuesday.

The one-hour protest was organised by the IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan that has six seats in the 110-member lower house of parliament.

The IAF said earlier this month that it was planning a trip to the Gaza Strip from the southern Red Sea port of Aqaba in a bid to break an Israeli blockade.