Rally in Tehran draws thousands despite US-Israeli attacks

(Al Jazeera Media Network) Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets of the capital Tehran for a protest in support of Palestinians, as the death toll from United States and Israeli attacks on the country continues to mount.

At least one person was killed after multiple explosions were heard around the al-Quds Day march on Friday, Iranian state television reported.

The cause of the blast in Tehran’s Ferdowsi Square was not immediately known, but it came shortly after Israel had threatened people to leave the area before a planned strike.

State media outlet Press TV said one woman was killed from shrapnel as a result of a US-Israeli air strike, without providing further details.

The rally came a day after Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei pledged that the country would continue fighting in the face of the deadly US-Israeli assault.

At least 1,444 people have been killed and 18,551 others wounded in Iran since the war began on February 28, according to the latest figures from the country’s Ministry of Health. The US and Israeli governments have shown no signs of halting their offensive against Iran, despite growing international pressure and calls for a de-escalation.

Iran has responded to the attacks by firing missiles and drones at targets across the wider Middle East and shuttering the Strait of Hormuz, a critical Gulf waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passes.

On Friday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the Iranian military launched missiles and drones at Israel in coordination with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, a Tehran ally.

“The operation … targeted American-Zionist enemy objectives using a large number of precision-guided, solid-fuel ‘Kheibar Shekan’ missiles,” the IRGC said in a statement.

Al-Quds Day is marked annually by people around the world to show support for Palestine and oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian was  seen at the rally in the Iranian capital, along with other Iranian officials, including Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.

In a social media post on Thursday, Pezeshkian had urged Iranians to “disappoint Iran’s enemies by taking to the streets in greater numbers than ever before.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/13/explosions-near-tehran-al-quds-day-march-in-solidarity-with-palestinians