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Iranians protest civilian Gaza deaths: 'Israel will end up in history's dustbin'
Israel-Hamas War: Protesters carried bundled white shrouds symbolising the children killed in Gaza during the nationwide marches.
Thousands of Iranians participated in marches to protest against the deaths of children and civilians in the Gaza war. At the protest, a top military commander Revolutionary Guards Commander Hossein Salami said Israel was going towards its doom in a war of attrition.
"Palestine stands on the path of a war of attrition...Israel will face a definitive defeat and end up in the dustbin of history," he told a rally in the capital Tehran.
"The battle is not over, the Islamic world will do whatever it has to do. There are still great (unused) capacities left," he said. Protesters carried bundled white shrouds symbolising the children killed in Gaza during the nationwide marches as Iran's Foreign Ministry called on the international community to help stop the "killing machine and organised terrorism of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people and hold Zionist criminals accountable to justice and international law".
Read more: Erdogan's vow: Turkey will rebuild Gaza if ceasefire achieved
Tensions in the region have increased since a deadly attack by Hamas through the border from Gaza into Israel on October 7 in which 1,200 people were killed and 240 hostages, including children, were taken hostage, according to Israel. Gaza health authorities raised their death toll to more than 12,000, including 5,000 children, as Israel bombarded the territory.
Families of Israeli hostages and thousands of their supporters arrived in Jerusalem at the end of a five-day march to confront the government. The marchers wanted to put pressure Israel's government "to do everything they can to bring the hostages back," Noam Alon, clutching a photograph of his abducted girlfriend, said.
"We are expecting them to meet with us, we are expecting them to tell us how they are going to do it," he said, as per news agency Reuters, adding, "We cannot wait any longer, so we are demand(ing) them to do that now, to pay any price to bring the hostages back."
