Millions rally on Quds Day to condemn Israeli genocide, support Palestinians

Millions of people in Iran and across the world rally on the International Quds Day, marked on the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, to express their solidarity with Palestinians and condemn Israeli atrocities.

Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif, the spokesman of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and the director-general of Intifada headquarters in Tehran, said pro-Palestine rallies are held in more than 2,000 locations across the country.

Speaking at the news briefing, Sharif underlined that the slogan of this year’s Quds Day march is, “Quds Day, from al-Aqsa Storm to al-Ahrar (freedom seekers) Storm.”

In Tehran, the rallies included a funeral procession held for the martyrs of an Israeli airstrike on the consular section of the Iranian Embassy in the Mezzeh neighborhood in Damascus on Monday. They carried pictures of those killed and banners with slogans such as “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”.

From different walks of life and various social strata, the demonstrators also held the national flags of Iran and Palestine as well as banners that read, “Free Palestine,” and “Al-Quds must be liberated.”

The mass rally in the Iranian capital was also attended by Palestine’s Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ziyad Nakhalah and Abd al-Aziz al-Muhammadawi, chief of staff of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units, better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi.

“Today, all fronts of the Axis of Resistance against the Zionist enemy have united,” Nakhalah said.

“Now the Axis of Resistance is strong and what is going on in southern Lebanon, Yemen and in Iraq operations confirms the unity, strength and readiness of this axis in the fight against Israel,” he added.

“Definitely, what is unfolding today among all the groups of the Axis of Resistance in Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine as well as the Islamic Republic of Iran is the declaration of Israel’s decline,” Muhammadawi, known as Abu Fadak, told reporters on Friday.

“We are waiting for the mandate of Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] on what to do; we are awaiting his order today.”

Muhammadawi also underlined that Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip will be victorious and the occupying regime will be destroyed.

The event in Tehran was also participated by a group of Nigerian students carrying banners in support of Palestine, the Islamic Republic, and Leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky.

Senior Iranian officials attended the rallies in Tehran, including President Ebrahim Raeisi who said the cries of abhorrence expressed by the people “will definitely lead to the destruction of the Zionist regime and the elevation of the dignity of the Palestinian people and the Muslims of the world”.

This year’s rallies take place as Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and elsewhere have come under the most unprecedented campaign of bombings and displacement by Israel.

More than 180 days into the onslaught, at least 33,037 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, with 75,668 others injured, mostly women and children.

Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.

Quds day is an annual pro-Palestinian event held on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan to express support for Palestinians and oppose Israel  and Zionism. The event, initiated by the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini, was first held in 1979 in Iran, shortly after the Islamic Revolution.