Iranian's wave the flags of Palestine and Iran they gather during an anti-Israel demonstration after the Friday noon prayer in Tehran,April 19, 2024. /CFP
Iranians on Friday staged nationwide rallies to express support for the country's retaliatory strikes against Israeli targets last week, the official news agency IRNA reported.
In Tehran, demonstrators marched from the University of Tehran to Enghelab Square.
They carried placards featuring slogans against Israel and the United States, expressing support for the strikes launched on the night of April 13.
A large billboard depicting Iranian missiles is displayed on a Tehran major square, Iran, April 19, 2024. /CFP
The procession also demonstrated solidarity with the Palestinians, asserting they would be "liberated."
Similar rallies were also held in other cities including Tabriz, Mashhad, and Isfahan, where participants called Iran's drone and missile attacks "legitimate defense."
Palestinians bid farewell to their dead relatives, at the Al-Najjar Hospital where nine members of the Abu Radwan family were killed following an Israeli air strike in Rafah, 20 April 2024. /CFP
Iran fired hundreds of missiles and drones toward Israel on Saturday, in response to the Israeli airstrike on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital city of Damascus on April 1, which killed seven Iranians, including two veteran commanders.
Palestinians perform Friday noon prayer next to the ruins of Al-Farouq Mosque, destroyed during Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, April 19, 2024. /CFP
U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Robert Wood (L, front) votes against a draft resolution that recommends to the 193-member UN General Assembly that "the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations", at the UN headquarters in New York, April 18, 2024. /CFP
The United States on Thursday voted against a Palestinian request for full UN membership at the Security Council. The 15-member council voted on a draft resolution that recommended that "the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations" to the 193-member UN General Assembly.
The draft resolution received 12 votes in favor, two abstentions, and one vote against.
Ziad Abu Amr, the special representative of the Palestinian president, addressed the Security Council, stating that adopting the resolution would provide the Palestinian people with hope for "a decent life within an independent state."
Pro-Palestinian student protesters resume demonstrations at Columbia University after mass arrests by New York Police Department in New York, U.S., April 19, 2024. /CFP