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.
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.
From different walks of life and various social strata, the demonstrators in Tehran 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.
Palestine’s Islamic Jihad Secretary General Ziyad Nakhalah and chief of staff of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units Abd al-Aziz al-Muhammadawi attend International Quds Day rallies in Tehran on April 5, 2024. (Photo by IRNA)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.
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.
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."
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.