Thousands of Iranians rallied across the country in support of Palestinians in Gaza, while marking the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US embassy in Tehran. They condemned Washington’s support of Israel, which has been relentlessly bombarding the Gaza Strip in its war against Hamas.

Saturday’s rally, which was called for by the state, came as the Israel-Hamas war entered its fourth week.

Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on October 7 killed about 1,400 people, while more than 240 were taken hostage. The Israeli retaliatory operation has killed more than 9,400 Palestinians.

In Tehran, demonstrators marched from Palestine Square in the heart of the Iranian capital to the former US embassy a few kilometres away. Chants of “death to America” and “death to Israel” rang out throughout the marches.

The November 4, 1979, takeover, which took place after the fall of Iran’s US-backed monarch, lasted 444 days, and 52 Americans were held captive. The site of the US embassy is now accessible to the public as a representation of what Iranian officials call a “den of spies”.

A statement published on behalf of the protesters at the end of the commemoration called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and warned the United States, United Kingdom and France that the crisis might expand in the region.