Iranian students to head to Gaza to fight Israel

An Iranian student group announced on Monday that it is recruiting volunteers to fight Israel as the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah called on Palestinians to launch a new uprising in the face of Israel's three-day assault on Gaza.

The students said that they had started their campaign in response to a religious decree issued by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday stating that anyone who died in the defense of Gaza would be deemed a martyr.

"In response to the supreme leader's orders for a jihad (holy war), students from the bassij militia are going to register... to go to fight in the occupied Palestinian territories," the Fars news agency quoted one of the students' leaders, Alireza Zahedi, as saying.

Fars said that several hundred students had already signed up and that the recruits would soon hold a parade.

Khamenei ruled on Sunday that "all... believers in the Islamic world are required to defend in any way they can the defenseless women, children and people of Gaza.

"Anyone who is killed in this legitimate and sacred defense is a martyr," he said.

In response to the supreme leader's orders for a jihad (holy war), students from the bassij militia are going to register... to go to fight in the occupied Palestinian territories

State News

"Destroy Israel"

A number of high-ranking Iranian officials and military commanders joined Monday's noisy protest in the capital against the Israeli bombing blitz that has killed well over 300 people since Saturday.

Shouting "Down with Israel", the demonstrators carried banners reading "Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth" and "We should all rise and destroy Israel."

Iran meanwhile shipped a 2,000-ton consignment of food and medicine for Gaza from its southern port of Bandar Abbas headed for the Jordanian port of Aqaba, state television's website said.

"Two more ships of the relief will be sent to Palestine soon," the head of the Iranian Red Crescent, Masoud Khatami, was quoted as saying.

Foreign ministry spokesman, Hassan Ghashghavi, said Iran had also sent a planeload of humanitarian aid to Cairo on Sunday evening and would send a second soon.

The government has called on all Iranians to hold anti-Israel rallies.
Iran is a staunch supporter of the Islamist Hamas movement which controls Gaza but denies Israeli accusations that it provides arms and finance to the organization, which remains blacklisted as a terror group by the West despite the fact that they were democratically elected.

Third intifada

Meanwhile, Shiite leader Hassan Nasrallah echoed calls by Hamas for a third uprising and urged Palestinians to rise up against Israel.

"I join the calls of those Palestinian leaders who have urged a third intifada," Nasrallah said in a speech beamed on a giant teleivision screen to tens of thousands of supporters gathered in his movement's bastion in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Nasrallah was alluding to Khaled Meshaal, the exiled head of Hamas, who called on Saturday for the launch of a new intifada like those begun in 1987 and 2000.

The Hezbollah leader has been Israel's public enemy number one since his group fought a devastating conflict with Tel Aviv in the summer 2006 until a U.N.-brokered ceasefire put an end to it.

Tens of thousands of Hezbollah supporters turned out for Monday's demonstration to mark what Nasrallah called a "day of mourning and solidarity."

I join the calls of those Palestinian leaders who have urged a third intifada

Hassan Nasrallah