Iranian Cleric Calls on Muslims to Stand Up against Israel’s Atrocities

Addressing a large group of worshippers here in Tehran on Friday, the city’s Provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Kazem Sediqi said all Muslims should stand up against the “cancerous tumor” (Zionist regime).

He also urged Muslims to participate in the International Quds (Jerusalem) Day rallies in large numbers to express their abhorrence towards Israel and its supporters.

This year, the Quds Day rallies should be held more massively than previous years, the senior cleric underlined.

In 1979, Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, designated the last Friday of the lunar month of Ramadan as the International Quds Day, during which Muslims across the world hold rallies to show their solidarity with Palestinians.

This year, the occasion is commemorated as the Zionist regime continues its brutal offensive against the Gaza Strip.

The total Palestinian death toll has topped 265 since the Zionist regime began its air raids against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on July 8.

Tel Aviv also launched a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip on Thursday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the army to push the aggression against Gaza into a new stage.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Sediqi referred to the terrorist activities of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and said Takfiri terrorist groups like the ISIL have been created to preoccupy Muslims so that Israel can easily proceed with its crimes.

The ISIL terrorist group, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has captured areas on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border after seizing the Iraqi city of Mosul on June 10 and sweeping towards Baghdad.

In Syria, ISIL Takfiri militants have battled with government forces, wreaking havoc in the crisis-torn country.

Iraqi security forces have launched major offensives to retake control of the captured areas.