TEHRAN: Millions of Iranians have taken to the streets across the country on International Quds Day in solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian nation.
Iranians from all walks of life turned out in droves in the capital, Tehran, and in over 770 towns and cities across the country to show support for Palestinians in the face of Israels crimes and atrocities.
Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani also joined the event.
Meanwhile, millions of people in other countries also marked the occasion by turning out en masse to vent their anger at the Israeli regime.
In a statement issued at the end of the nationwide demonstrations, the Iranian marchers referred to the liberation of al-Quds from the clutches of the Israeli regime as the top priority of the Muslim world, denouncing any scheme meant to distract the Muslims public opinion from the Palestinian cause.
They also demanded the return of all Palestinians to their homeland as well as a subsequent referendum for the Palestinian nation to freely decide its own future.
The protesters further slammed the international communitys deafening silence in the face of Israels attempts to Judaize the occupied Palestinian lands and destroy historical Palestinian identities, calling on regional and global organizations to take serious and practical measures to counter the regimes plots.
They also censured the Takfiri violence fuelled by ISIL terrorists in Iraq, Syria and Libya as well as the Al Saudi regimes ongoing onslaught against Yemen as a plot hatched by the US, Israel and their reactionary allies in the region in an attempt to create division in the Islamic world.
Ayatullah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, named the last Friday of the lunar fasting month of Ramadan as International Quds Day. The event fell on July 10 this year.
Each year, millions of people around the world stage rallies on this day to voice their support for the Palestinian nation and repeat their call for an end to the Tel Aviv regimes atrocities and its occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Meanwhile, Thousands of people have flooded the streets of the Yemeni capital Sanaa to denounce the Israeli regimes crimes against Palestinians on International Quds Day.
During the Friday march, the Yemeni demonstrators carried Palestinian flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans to show their solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian nation.
Thousands of Muslims were expected to hold prayers at the mosque on Friday.
On Thursday, however, Tel Aviv had subjected Palestinians to severe age restrictions, obligating Israeli forces to require entry permits from women aged between 16 and 30 and men of 30 to 50 years of age to let them cross Checkpoint 300, located in northern Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, into al-Quds, Palestinian news agency Maan reported.
Only children under 12, men above 50, and women above 30 were, thus, allowed to cross without permits.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, located in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds, is a flashpoint Islamic site, also holy to the Jews. The mosque is Islams third-holiest site after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.
Security measures were visible in al-Quds for the last Friday in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, designated by the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatullah Khomeini as the International Quds Day.
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