Iran calls for ‘united international response’ to Israeli apartheid

Speaking on Sunday, Khatibzadeh condemned the “racist Zionists’” violation of the compound and their attacks on Palestinian worshippers there.

The official praised the Palestinian people and “al-Quds’ defenders’” steadfastness and resistance, warning the Zionist regime against “new adventurism and provocative measures.”

Earlier on Sunday, tens of thousands of Israeli settlers staged their annual “March of the Flags” by rallying through the heart of the main Palestinian thoroughfare in East al-Quds’ Old City, waving Israeli flags and chanting provocative slogans.

The Israelis, who were enjoying maximum protection on the part of the regime’s troops, forced their way into the al-Aqsa Mosque’s compound, performing religious rituals there, despite a standing agreement that prohibits non-Muslim prayers on the site.

The event commemorates the Israeli regime’s 1967 occupation of East al-Quds, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state. The parade is associated with violence against Palestinians and the “display of incitement, Jewish dominance, and racism,” according to Israeli NGO Ir Amim.

Khatibzadeh noted that the cause of liberation of al-Quds from Israeli occupation and aggression remained the Muslim world’s “first priority.”

“All of the world’s freedom-seeking people, especially the Muslim people and countries, are duty-bound to act in a united manner towards all-out defense of the al-Aqsa Mosque and confrontation against the Zionist apartheid regime,” he asserted.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 145 Palestnians were injured during the day’s clashes with Israeli forces and illegal settlers throughout the occupied West Bank, including East al-Quds, where the Israeli extremists were staging the controversial march. At least 18 of those wounded had been targeted by live Israeli fire, the body added.

He called on international authorities and organizations to act upon their legal duty by preventing the “Zionist occupiers’ attacks on the defenseless Palestinian people.”