By Al Jazeera Staff and AP
13 Mar 2026
Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets of the capital Tehran for a mass protest in support of Palestinians, as the death toll from United States and Israeli attacks on the country continues to mount.
videos: aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/13/
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 ahead of 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 others since the war began on February 28, according to the latest figures from Iran’s Health Ministry.
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.xt-align: left;”>
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.
‘We stand by our country’
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.
Reporting from the demonstration in Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said Iranians hoped to both show their support for Palestinians and express “defiance and resilience” amid the US-Israeli attacks.
“They think that by killing us we will be afraid, that by dropping bombs on our heads we will be afraid. No, we stand by our country,” a female demonstrator told Al Jazeera.
Another protester said Iranians have shown in their confrontation with the US and Israel that “the wall of oppression can be broken”.
“Today, with their presence in different squares, the people showed that it is possible to overcome injustice and break the wall of oppression,” he told Al Jazeera.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian also 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”.
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