Iran has slammed the Israeli settlers over desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque and racist slogans against Palestinians during the annual flag march held at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani made the remarks on Wednesday after thousands of extremist settlers encroached on the al-Aqsa Mosque compound during the so-called “flag march,” with some attacking Palestinians and journalists while chanting racist slogans against Palestinians.

“The extremist Zionists’ provocative desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque, which was carried out with the support of the usurping regime’s military and security forces amid the apartheid entity’s genocide and crimes in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, show Tel Aviv is bent to escalate the crisis in Palestine and the region,” he said.

 “Through such insulting and provocative actions, the racist Zionist cult will gain nothing but global hatred, especially from Muslim nations,” he added.

“The child-killing and occupying Israeli regime is now more isolated than ever, and undoubtedly, such moves will only result in the regime’s further isolation and more hatred towards it.”

It further called on Arab and Islamic nations and the freedom-seeking people of the world to escalate pressure on the occupation and its supporters, and to expose Israeli atrocities against the innocent Palestinians.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance group said the Zionists think that by attacking al-Aqsa Mosque, they may “compensate for some of the humiliation inflicted upon them by the Palestinian people and its fighters” in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Israel waged a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 36,586 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 83,074 others in the Gaza Strip.