TEHRAN: Iran has welcomed the growing wave of international opposition to the Israeli regime’s continued illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories. “The Islamic Republic of Iran… sees the intensification of global opposition to this (Israeli) regime’s illegal and inhuman actions including settler outpost construction as a good omen and calls for international action for putting an end to the conspiracies” of Israel against the Palestinian nation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a Monday statement marking Nakba Day, which marks the 1948 mass expulsion of Palestinians from their homes. The statement also reaffirmed Iran’s support for “national reconciliation and solidarity” of Palestinians in countering the Israeli regime. The statement cited Israel’s attempts to Judaize the Holy al-Quds (Jerusalem), the regime’s desecration of al-Aqsa Mosque and the persistence of its decade-long blockade of Gaza Strip as “crimes” committed by the Tel Aviv regime against the backdrop of Israel’s exploitation of ongoing crises in the Middle East region. It expressed hope that Muslim nations would throw their weight behind efforts embarked on by Palestinian resistance groups and nation with a view to putting an end to the Israeli occupation and materialization of national unity. On Sunday, thousands of people in the Gaza Strip, a besieged Palestinian enclave, staged a mass rally in commemoration of Nakba Day in Gaza City and demanded the return of Palestinians to their homelands. The protesters also called for stronger unity among Palestinian factions and groups, including those in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank, in the face of Israel’s tactics for continuing the occupation.