Tehran (AFP) - Thousands of people demonstrated Friday across Iran and several Arab countries to mark Jerusalem Day in support of the Palestinian cause, amid a surge in violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Recent weeks have seen deadly attacks and clashes in Israel, annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, as well as cross-border fire between Israeli forces and militants in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria.
The rallies in Iran, an annual fixture since the 1979 Islamic revolution, are held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.
"Death to Israel and to America," protesters chanted, waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, as well as those of Lebanon's Iran-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah.
Similar rallies took place in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, in Lebanon's capital Beirut and the city of Baalbek, as well as in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon, AFP correspondents said.
"The Palestinians are actively confronting Israeli aggression from Gaza to the heart of Tel Aviv," Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in Tehran.
"Yesterday they (Palestinians) were fighting with stones, and now they hit (Israel) with rockets," Ghalibaf said.
As well as Tehran, rallies were held in major Iranian cities including Tabriz in the northwest, Hamedan in the west, Yazd in the centre, Bandar Abbas in the south and Abadan in the southwest, images broadcast on state television showed.
Some demonstrators raised banners that read "the destruction of Israel is near" and "Palestine is the axis of unity of the Muslim world".
Iran does not recognise its arch-foe Israel.
'We are coming'
In central Tehran, protesters set fire to Israeli and US flags and images of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, AFP correspondents said.
The pro-Palestinian rallies follow months of unrest in Iran sparked by the September death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young women arrested for an alleged breach of strict dress rules.
Tehran has accused foreign adversaries including Israel of fomenting the protest movement.
"We have witnessed conspiracies by enemies in recent times," Ghalibaf told the crowd in Tehran."If it wasn't for God's grace and our nation's intelligence...they would have had their dreams."
"It shows we must act now with greater focus and try to eliminate our weak points," he added, pointing specifically to Iran's economy battered by years of sanctions.
"Today, the most important fight of all officials is against high costs, because it is a weak point exploited by the enemy," Ghalibaf said.
In Baghdad, where pro-Tehran parties are in power, a few hundred people marched.
"God willing, the end of Israel will be in the years to come," read one sign.
"Yes to Jerusalem, no to normalisation," the crowd chanted, in reference to a refusal of any peace with Israel.
In Syria, Palestinian fighters marched through the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, waving Syrian, Palestinian and Iranian flags.
"Jerusalem, we are coming," they chanted.
In Lebanon, Palestinian factions paraded through the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp, a stronghold of the Shiite force Hezbollah.
"We will not abandon Palestine, the people of Palestine, or the holy sites in Palestine.This is our commitment and this is our faith," Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised statement.
"The resistance...is confident while the Israeli enemy is scared and terrified."
burs-ap/hj/pjm/jsa
