Mass rallies sweep across Iran in support of the Palestinians

Thousands of Iranians held rallies across the country Saturday against Israel’s unrelenting bombardment of the Gaza strip following the shock attacks by the Palestinian militant group Hamas last month.

The demonstrations in the capital Tehran and other cities were held in “support of the oppressed children of Gaza” under the slogan “Palestine is not alone”, according to local media.

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Israel’s air and ground campaign has killed an estimated 12,000 people in the Palestinian territory, including 5,000 children, according to Hamas authorities, which have ruled Gaza since 2007.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s October 7 attacks which Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and in which about 240 people were taken hostage.

In Tehran, crowds of demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, while others held banners reading “Down with America” and “Down with Israel”, according to AFP journalists.

Others burnt Israeli flags while some waved the flags of Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, Iran’s ally, which has been engaged in border skirmishes with Israel since October 7.

“The Zionist regime (Israel) can no longer see peace and security,” Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech during the Tehran rally.

“Muslims will take revenge on behalf of the oppressed people of Gaza, and this revenge has no expiration date.”

Similar demonstrations took place in other major cities including Shiraz, Kerman, and Isfahan.

Iran has made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Islamic republic, which supports Hamas financially and militarily, has hailed the October 7 attacks a “success” but denied any involvement.

It has also lambasted Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as “genocide” while denouncing the United States over its support for Israel.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani decried Israel’s “attacks” on hospitals in the Gaza strip.

“Attacking hospitals is in conflict with all human rights standards, international law and Geneva Conventions and makes the criminal nature of this regime even more obvious to the world,” he said on X, formerly Twitter, in reference to Israel.

His statement came as hundreds of people fled Gaza’s main Al-Shifa hospital, where more than 2,000 patients, medics and displaced people were trapped.

Israel has been pressing military operations inside the hospital, searching for a Hamas operations center it says lies under the sprawling complex, a charge Hamas denies.

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