Thousands of people in the Iranian capital, Tehran, staged a demonstration on Tuesday to express their support for the Palestinians and denounce the Israeli regime’s latest military onslaught against the Gaza Strip.
The protesters gathered near Palestine Square in Tehran, where the Palestinian Embassy is located, carrying placards and flags of Palestine and the resistance movement.
They chanted slogans against the US, the Israeli regime and Britain and reiterated their support for the Palestinian people, who stood firm against Israel’s latest wave of deadly aerial assaults on the besieged Gaza.
Addressing the rally, Khalid Qaddoumi, the representative of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, said the Zionist enemy, which killed innocent civilians must be tried in international human rights courts and face due punishment.
He added that the Palestinians have a common fate and are determined to continue their fight against the Israeli regime with the strategic goal of bringing about the occupying regime’s collapse, emphasising that no party can sow discord among the Palestinian people.
The Hamas official added that the Zionist enemy would never be able to undermine the Palestinians’ will, saying the regime would finally be expelled from the Palestinian lands.
Qaddoumi hailed the support of the Iranian people and officials for the oppressed Palestinian people in their fight against the Israeli regime’s occupation and atrocities.
In their final statement, the protesters said the decades-long resistance of Palestine in the face of the usurpers of al-Quds (Jerusalem) has today become more powerful thanks to unity among the Palestinian resistance groups.
In the recent Israeli war, the resistance movement fired more than 1,000 rockets and forced the Zionists to humiliatingly beg for a ceasefire based on the conditions of Islamic Jihad, said the statement, adding that this shows the hit-and-run era has come to an end for the Zionists and their supporters.
It said the enhanced capacities and deterrence power of the Palestinian resistance has changed the equations and showed that the zealous and brave Palestinians would give crushing responses to the slightest moves of the Israeli regime.
Israel unleashed three days of military assaults on the blockaded Gaza Strip on Friday.
It killed 46 people, including 16 children, in air raids on the coastal enclave.
The Islamic Jihad movement also responded by launching hundreds of rockets toward the occupied territories, sending Israelis in southern occupied territories, including Tel Aviv, into shelters.
A truce brokered by the Egyptian mediators between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement in Gaza went into effect at 11:30 pm local time (2030 GMT) on Sunday, as the movement said it ‘reserves the right to respond to any Zionist aggression.’
Iran has lauded the Palestinian resistance’s ‘great achievement’ in standing up to Israel’s three-day airstrikes.
In a Monday phone call with Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian lauded the Palestinian resistance’s ‘great achievement’ in standing up to Israel’s massive assaults and forcing the regime into agreeing to a truce.
‘That once again the resistance was able to withstand the Zionist regime’s full-scale military assault and forced them into agreeing to a truce and complying with the resistance’s conditions is a great achievement,’ Amir-Abdollahian said.
Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, gave a televised speech broadcast live from the Lebanese capital city of Beirut on August 9, 2022, on the occasion of Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein.
The secretary general of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement called his group the frontrunner of the battle against Israel, warning the Tel Aviv regime of tough and crippling retaliatory strikes in case it dares launch an act of aggression against Lebanese territories.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah made the remarks in a televised speech on Tuesday as he addressed mourners commemorating Ashura, which marks the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam and the grandson of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
‘Hezbollah is at the forefront of battle against the Zionist enemy,’ Nasrallah said.
‘The resistance movement is stronger than ever; Israelis should not make the folly of testing the Lebanese nation’s resolve to protect its own natural resources.’
The top Hezbollah official said Israeli officials will be gripped by fear if they find out what the Lebanese resistance movement has prepared for their strategic energy and military installations.
He also said Hezbollah is waiting for the Israeli response to the Lebanese government’s demands regarding the disputed maritime area in the Mediterranean Sea, which is rich in natural resources like gas and oil, emphasising that his fellow fighters are nonetheless preparing for all possible scenarios.
‘Lebanon and its people will no longer accept the looting of maritime wealth. We are ready to look at any possibility.
‘The hand extended to plunder any of Lebanon’s natural wealth will be cut off as was the case when our lands were invaded,’ Nasrallah noted.
He called for the swift formation of a competent Lebanese government, urging all political factions to join forces in order to overcome existing crises and resolve the sufferings of the nation.
‘We look forward to a powerful Lebanon, which is capable to defend its own sovereignty and wealth,’ he said.
The top Hezbollah leader said the Israeli regime has no other choice but to recognise Lebanon’s right to its oil and gas wealth in the Mediterranean Sea.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Nasrallah offered his heartfelt condolences over the death and injury of several Shia Muslims at the hands of Nigerian troops, as they were taking part in a peaceful annual Ashura procession in the country’s northern city of Zaria.
He sympathised with Nigeria’s most senior Shia cleric Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, and prayed for the victims of the incident.
The Hezbollah leader also lashed out at Bahrain’s Al Khalifah regime over a tightening crackdown on Shia Muslims during Ashura commemorations.
‘Among the most disgraceful regimes that have normalised ties with Israel is the oppressive Al Khalifa regime, which receives Zionists with open arms while at the same time attacking ceremonies marking Ashura,’ Nasrallah stated.
The Hezbollah leader then voiced Lebanon’s support for the impoverished Yemenis, reiterating that it is Muslims’ duty to lend assistance to the oppressed nation.
He also maintained that Syria has emerged triumphant over the foreign-sponsored militancy but is still grappling with unilateral Western sanctions that have exacerbated economic and humanitarian crises in the country in recent years.
The Hezbollah leader lauded Palestinians and resistance fighters in the besieged Gaza Strip for their spirited resilience and steadfastness, emphasising that they have managed to impose their equations on the Israeli regime.
Hezbollah said the Palestinian resistance’s successful defensive operations left Tel Aviv with no other choice than to accept truce.
Nasrallah also pointed to the political turmoil in Iraq, calling on all political figures in the Arab country to settle their disagreements in a bid to foil potential foreign conspiracies.
‘The Islamic Republic of Iran, under the leadership of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, will remain the heart of the Axis of Resistance,’ the Hezbollah secretary general said.
Nasrallah finally paid tribute to Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated along with his Iraqi comrade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of the Iraqi Popular Mobilisation Units (PMU), in a US drone strike authorised by former president Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.