GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (Dispatches) — Iran’s president has delivered an unprecedented speech to an annual rally in the Gaza Strip — a display of Iran’s importance to the besieged territory.
In a virtual address to hundreds of supporters of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group gathered at a soccer field, President Ebrahim Raisi urged Palestinians to press on with their struggle against the occupying regime of Israel.
“The initiative to self-determination is today in the hands of the Palestinian fighters,” Raisi said.
Raisi addressed the crowd on the occasion of Quds Day which falls on the final Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Al-Quds is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site of Islam.
The compound has repeatedly been a flashpoint in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last week, Israeli troops forcefully removed Palestinian worshippers who were demanding the right to pray there overnight.
After the raid, in which hundreds of Palestinians

were detained and dozens hurt, Palestinian resistance fighters fired rockets from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria toward Zionist targets.
The Hamas leader in Gaza, Yehiyeh Sinwar, praised the rocket fire during Friday’s rally. “The response came like a simple electric shock,” Sinwar said.
For the past four decades, Al-Quds Day parades have drawn millions to the streets around the Middle East.
Hamas has publicly praised the Islamic Republic for its assistance. Experts say Iran’s support is now mostly blueprint technology, engineering know-how and training to help the resistance grow its own homemade arsenal of advanced rockets that can strike all of the occupied territories.