TEHRAN, Nov. 4  — Thousands of Iranians rallied across the country on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy, amid heightened tensions with the United States and Israel.

Crowds gathered in cities including the capital Tehran, where demonstrators marched from Palestine Square to the former U.S. embassy, waving Iranian flags and chanting slogans against the United States and Israel.

Many carried portraits of Iranians killed in the 12-day conflict with Israel in June. Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told the crowd the anniversary symbolized the day Iranians “loudly and unitedly” rejected oppression, according to the state news agency IRNA.

He said Iran would continue to resist pressure from the United States, emphasizing that the country would not trade its independence for anything.

The event commemorates Nov. 4, 1979, when Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and seized dozens of hostages in a standoff that lasted more than a year.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Monday that the incident revealed Washington’s “true identity,” alleging that documents taken from the embassy showed it was “a center for plotting” against Iran’s Islamic Revolution. (Xinhua)

JERUSALEM, Nov. 3 — Israel’s former chief military prosecutor was arrested after admitting to leaking video footage showing soldiers at a detention facility in southern Israel abusing a Palestinian detainee, officials said on Monday.

Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday after taking responsibility for leaking the video. The arrest followed a wide-scale search along Tel Aviv’s coastline on Sunday night, launched after Tomer-Yerushalmi’s family reported concerns for her safety and police found her car abandoned near the beach.

Police said she was found soon afterward “alive and well.” On Monday, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court ordered that she remain in custody at least until Wednesday.

The police said she is suspected of fraud and breach of trust, abuse of office, and obstruction of justice. Former military prosecutor Matan Solomesh was also arrested and remanded until Wednesday.

State-owned Kan TV reported that several officers from the military prosecution have been questioned by police. Tomer-Yerushalmi’s mobile phone has not been located, and investigators are examining whether she may have thrown it into the sea to destroy evidence.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said she was being held under increased supervision. The leaked video, broadcast by Channel 12 television, showed the assault of a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention facility in August 2024.

At the time, the military was investigating the incident and had detained several soldiers suspected of involvement, triggering anger among far-right activists who stormed the facility in protest.

Five soldiers were later indicted. According to the indictment, a copy of which was seen by Xinhua, the five beat, kicked and assaulted a Palestinian detainee from Gaza with a stun gun and sodomized him while he was blindfolded and shackled hand and foot.

They caused him severe injuries. In her resignation letter, Tomer-Yerushalmi said she leaked the video to counter a storm of public outrage in Israel directed at the military prosecution after the arrest of the suspected soldiers.

The military has a “duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of violence against a detainee,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, this basic understanding — that there are actions which must never be taken, even against the vilest of detainees — no longer convinces everyone,” she added. (Xinhua)

GAZA, Nov. 3  — Gaza health authorities said Monday that they have received the remains of 45 Palestinians from Israel through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

This brings the total number of bodies received from Israel since the ceasefire in October to 270, according to a statement issued by the authorities.

They added that local medical teams are continuing to handle the bodies according to established medical procedures and protocols, in preparation for completing the examination, documentation, and handover to the families.

Since the ceasefire came into effect on Oct. 10, Hamas has released 20 living Israeli captives and handed over 20 bodies, while Israel has released 250 Palestinian prisoners serving long sentences and 1,718 prisoners arrested in Gaza after Oct. 7, 2023.

Under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, the first phase of the truce in Gaza includes partial Israeli troop withdrawals, the exchange of hostages and prisoners, and a significant increase in aid deliveries to the enclave. (Xinhua)

BEIRUT, Nov. 3 — Two members of the Lebanese Hezbollah group were killed and seven other people injured on Monday afternoon in two separate Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, according to official and security sources.

The official Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported that an Israeli drone launched three guided missiles, targeting a car in the town of Al-Doueir.

The strike resulted in the death of one person and injuries to seven. The NNA added that another hostile drone carried out an attack on a motorcycle in the Abu Laban neighborhood of the village of Aita al-Shaab.

The Emergency Operations Center of the Ministry of Public Health said in a statement that the Israeli strike on Aita al-Shaab killed one citizen.

A source in the Lebanese Army Intelligence told Xinhua that “the person killed in the Al-Doueir strike was a Hezbollah member named Mohammad Hadid, and the person killed in the Aita al-Shaab strike was also a Hezbollah member named Youssef Naameh Srour.”

Since Nov. 27, 2024, a ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel, brokered by the United States and France, has been in effect, largely ending clashes that erupted following the war in the Gaza Strip.

Despite the agreement, the Israeli army occasionally carries out strikes in Lebanon, claiming they are intended to eliminate Hezbollah “threats,” while maintaining forces at five main positions along the Lebanese border. (Xinhua)

JERUSALEM/GAZA, Nov. 3  — Israel has rejected a request by mediators to allow about 200 militants to safely exit an underground tunnel in southern Gaza and return to an area not controlled by the Israeli military, an Israeli government official said Monday.

The militants, holed up in a tunnel in Rafah, behind the “yellow line” that marks the Israeli army’s withdrawal zone under the current ceasefire agreement, “must either surrender and be imprisoned or be killed,” the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said in a statement that on Monday morning, after identifying militants allegedly crossing the “yellow line” and posing “an immediate threat,” Israeli troops struck the militants from the air and on the ground.

Palestinian medical sources told Xinhua at least two Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces opened fire with machine guns on civilians north of Rafah.

Despite the ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10, at least 236 Palestinians had been killed and 600 wounded by Israeli fire, Gaza health authorities said Sunday.

It said the total death toll from Israeli strikes since Oct. 7, 2023, had reached 68,865. The Hamas-run media office on Monday accused Israel of committing 194 violations of the ceasefire, adding that the aid delivered into Gaza since Oct. 10 does not exceed 24 percent of the agreed-upon amount due to Israel’s obstruction.

Also on Monday, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem condemned Israel’s continued demolition of homes and residential areas in Gaza, saying the operations “constitute a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

He called on mediators to pressure Israel to halt the “ongoing violations,” including daily killings, the continued blockade, restrictions on aid, and the closure of the Rafah border crossing. (Xinhua)