Israeli strike on Iran's consulate in Syria killed 2 generals and 5 other officers, Iran says

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Israeli airstrike that demolished Iran’s consulate in Syria on Monday killed two Iranian generals and five officers, according to Iranian officials. The strike appeared to signify an escalation of Israel’s targeting of military officials from Iran, which supports militant groups fighting Israel in Gaza, and along its border with Lebanon.

Since the war in Gaza began nearly six months ago, clashes have increased between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants based in Lebanon. Hamas, which rules Gaza and attacked Israel on Oct. 7, is also backed by Iran.

Israel, which rarely acknowledges strikes against Iranian targets, said it had no comment on the latest attack in Syria, although a military spokesman blamed Iran for a drone attack early Monday against a naval base in southern Israel.

Israel has grown increasingly impatient with the daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah, which have escalated in recent days, and warned of the possibility of a full-fledged war. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have also been launching long-range missiles toward Israel, including on Monday.

The airstrike in Syria killed Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi, who led the elite Quds Force in Lebanon and Syria until 2016, according to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. It also killed Zahedi's deputy, Gen Mohammad Hadi Hajriahimi, and five other officers.

A member of Hezbollah, Hussein Youssef, also was killed in the attack, an official with the militant group told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with group's rules. Hezbollah has not publicly announced the death.

Hezbollah offered condolences to Iran for Zahedi's death and called Israel “foolish when it believes that liquidating the leaders can stop the roaring tide of the people's resistance.” It added in its statement that the killing “will not pass without the enemy receiving punishment and revenge.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said two Syrians also were killed.

Two police officers who guarded the consulate were among those wounded, and first responders were still searching for bodies under the rubble.

While Iran's consular building was leveled in the attack, according to Syria's state news agency, its main embassy building remained intact. Still, the Iranian ambassador's residence was inside the consular building.

Iran's ambassador, Hossein Akbari, vowed revenge for the strike “at the same magnitude and harshness.”

Hamas and Islamic Jihad — another Palestinian militant group backed by Iran — accused Israel of seeking to widen the conflict in Gaza.

Experts said there was no doubt that Iran would retaliate. The strike in Syria was a “major escalation,” Charles Lister, a Syria expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said on the social media platform X.

A spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry, Nasser Kanaani, called on other countries to condemn the strike.

Israel has attacked scores of Iranian-linked targets in Syria over the years with the apparent intent of disrupting arms transfers and other cooperation with Hezbollah. which has sent thousands of fighters to support Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

An Israeli airstrike in a Damascus neighborhood in December killed a longtime Iranian Revolutionary Guard adviser to Syria, Seyed Razi Mousavi.

A similar strike on a building in Damascus in January killed at least five Iranian advisers. Last week, an Iranian adviser was killed in airstrikes over the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, near the Iraqi border.

The chief spokesman for Israel’s army, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said a Monday drone attack on a naval base in southern Israel was “directed by Iran” and caused no injuries.

Early on Tuesday, the Israeli military said some kind of weapon fired from Syria toward Israel crashed before reaching its intended target.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Abby Sewell in Los Angeles and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, contributed to this report.

This story has been edited to correct that name of one of the generals is Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi.

Iranian protesters wave Iranian and Palestinian flags and hold the symbolic shrouded bodies of the Palestinian children as one of them holds a poster of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020, center, during their anti-Israeli gathering to condemn killing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria, at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike that demolished Iran's consulate in Syria killed two Iranian generals and five officers, Syrian and Iranian officials said Monday. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian protesters chant slogans as they hold up posters of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020, during their anti-Israeli gathering to condemn killing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria, at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike that demolished Iran's consulate in Syria killed two Iranian generals and five officers, Syrian and Iranian officials said Monday. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Iranian protesters wave Iranian and Palestinian flags as one of them holds up a poster of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020, during their anti-Israeli gathering to condemn killing members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Syria, at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike that demolished Iran's consulate in Syria killed two Iranian generals and five officers, Syrian and Iranian officials said Monday. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

In this photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, people gather near a destroyed building struck by Israeli jets in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Syria, killing a senior Iranian military adviser and roughly a handful of other people, Syrian state media said Monday. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, emergency service workers clear the rubble at a destroyed building struck by Israeli jets in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Syria, killing a senior Iranian military adviser and roughly a handful of other people, Syrian state media said Monday. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, emergency service workers clear the rubble at a destroyed building struck by Israeli jets in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Syria, killing a senior Iranian military adviser and roughly a handful of other people, Syrian state media said Monday. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, people gather near a destroyed building struck by Israeli jets in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Syria, killing a senior Iranian military adviser and roughly a handful of other people, Syrian state media said Monday. (SANA via AP)

In this photo released by the official Syrian state news agency SANA, emergency service workers clear the rubble at a destroyed building struck by Israeli jets in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Syria, killing a senior Iranian military adviser and roughly a handful of other people, Syrian state media said Monday. (SANA via AP)

Emergency services work at a building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike that demolished Iran’s consulate in Damascus Monday killed two Iranian generals and five officers, Syrian and Iranian officials said Monday. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Emergency services work at a destroyed building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Damascus, killing or wounding everyone inside, Syrian state media said Monday. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Emergency services work at a destroyed building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Damascus, killing or wounding everyone inside, Syrian state media said Monday. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Emergency services work at a destroyed building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Damascus, killing or wounding everyone inside, Syrian state media said Monday. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Emergency services work at a destroyed building hit by an air strike in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April 1, 2024. An Israeli airstrike has destroyed the consular section of Iran's embassy in Damascus, killing or wounding everyone inside, Syrian state media said Monday. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of protesters rallied within sight of the U.S. Capitol, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and voicing criticism of the Israeli and American governments as they marked a painful present — the war in Gaza — and past — the exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from what is now Israel when the state was created in 1948.

About 400 demonstrators braved steady rains to rally on the National Mall on the 76th anniversary of what is called the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe. In January, thousands of pro-Palestinian activists had gathered in the nation's capital in one of the larger protests in recent memory.

There were calls in support of Palestinian rights and an immediate end to Israeli military operations in Gaza. “No peace on stolen land” and “End the killings, stop the crime/Israel out of Palestine,” echoed through the crowd.

Protesters also focused their anger on President Joe Biden, whom they accuse of feigning concern over the death toll in Gaza.

“Biden Biden, you will see/genocide’s your legacy,” they said. The Democratic president was in Atlanta on Saturday.

Reem Lababdi, a George Washington University sophomore who said she was pepper-sprayed by police last week when they broke up an on-campus protest encampment, acknowledged that the rain seemed to hold down the numbers.

"I’m proud of every single person who turned out in this weather to speak their minds and send their message,” she said.

This year’s commemoration was fueled by anger over the ongoing siege of Gaza. The latest Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking an additional 250 hostage. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives, and Israel’s military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Speaker Osama Abuirshad, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, gestured at the Capitol building dome behind him.

“This Congress does not speak for us. This Congress does not represent the will of the people,” he said. “We're paying for the bombs. We're paying for the F-16s and F-35s. And then we do the poor Palestinians a favor and send some food.”

Speakers also expressed anger over the violent crackdown on multiple pro-Palestinian protest camps at universities across the country. In recent weeks, long-term encampments have been broken up by police at more than 60 schools; just under 3,000 protesters have been arrested.

“The students are the conscience of America,” said Abuirshad, who compared the university demonstrations to earlier protest movements against the Vietnam War and apartheid-era South Africa. “That's why the authorities are working so hard to silence them.”

In addition to pressing Israel and the Biden administration for an immediate end to hostilities in Gaza, activists have long pushed for the right of return for Palestinian refugees — an Israeli red line in decades of start-and-stop negotiations.

After the Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel's establishment, Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within Israel's borders. Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In Gaza, the refugees and their descendants make up around three-quarters of the population.

At several points during the rally and subsequent march, protesters performed a call-and-response, with the speaker naming different cities in Israel and the occupied territories. The response: “raageh!” — Arabic for “I'm returning!”

The demonstrators marched for several blocks on Pennsylvania and Constitution avenues, with police cars closing the streets ahead of them. One lone counter-protester, waving an Israeli flag, attempted to march near the front of the procession. At one point, one of the demonstrators snatched his flag and ran away.

With tensions rising, members of the protesters' “safety team” formed a tight phalanx around the man, both to impede his progress and protect him from hot-heads in the crowd. The standoff was broken when a police officer intervened, led the man away and told him to go home.

Associated Press writer Joseph Krauss in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

People raise their fists in solidarity during a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A person with a double eyebrow piercing wears a keffiyeh while holding a Palestinian flag in the rain during a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A man wearing a keffiyeh attends a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, near the U.S. Capitol on the National Mall in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

People hold Palestinian flags while attending a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A young man wearing a keffiyeh and a Jewish star necklace, left, holds a banner next to a 7-year-old from Springfield, Va., wearing a traditional outfit on the shoulders of her grandfather, who is Palestinian, during a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A young man wearing a keffiyeh and a Jewish star necklace, left, holds a banner next to a 7-year-old from Springfield, Va., wearing a traditional outfit while on the shoulders of her grandfather, who is Palestinian, during a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A 7-year-old from Springfield, Va., wearing a traditional outfit while being held by her grandfather, who is Palestinian, raises her fist during a chant at a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

A man wearing a keffiyeh looks at the U.S. Capitol during a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Cody Wolfe, center, of Elizabethtown, Penn., holds his two-year old son on his back wearing a keffiyeh, as he and his children attend a pro-Palestinian rally, Saturday, May 18, 2024, on the National Mall near the Capitol in Washington. "For our family it's the least we can do," says Wolfe, who said he is not of Palestinian descent but has been attending protests, "to show our solidarity. We want the babies to stop dying." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)