Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad vahidi held separate meetings with Secretary General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadan Abdullah Shallah and Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmad Jebril in Damascus on Thursday.

In the meetings, General Vahidi said Hamas and Hezbollah have broken the glass of life of the Zionist regime.

The Iranian Defense Minister stressed the necessity for all-out support of all groups for the Resistance against threats of the Zionist regime.

Reviewing developments in the recent decades showed that the Palestinians’ resistance not only has not been weakened but also it has reached to its climax by wisdom, might and courage of the people and their leaders, he sated.

General Vahidi stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran supports the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance and would stand with the Palestinian people till restoration of all their rights and freedom of the holy Qods.

The Palestinian figures, for their parts, said they have gained valuable experiences in the 33-day war in Lebanon and 22-day war in Gaza by which they could strike heavy blow and inflict disgraceful defeats on the Zionist regime.

Palestinian combatant groups called on Islamic and Arab countries on Monday to defend Qods and give strong support to the city’s holy sites.

In a statement issued at the end of the national gathering of Palestine in Damascus, Palestinian combatant groups warned about the Zionists’ programs in judaizing Qods.

They also called on Islamic and Arab countries to confront with anti-human policies of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian nation especially the brutal siege of the oppressed nation of Gaza and give their strong support to the resistance of Palestinian nation and combatants.

Appreciating stances adopted by the Lebanese Islamic Resistance Movement Hezbollah in backing rights of the Palestinians residing in Lebanon, the statement asked the new Lebanese government to approve civil and social rights of the Palestinian refugees and take fast action in reconstructing Nahr El Bahred Refugee Camp in northern Lebanon.

At the other part of the statement, Palestinian combatant groups warned about critical situation of occupied Palestine and urged Palestinian groups to bring an end to their differences.

Palestinian national dialogue should be continued based on supporting resistance, the statement said urging the Palestinian Authority to stop negotiations with the Zionist enemy.

Nobody has appointed Mahmoud Abbas and its group as the Palestinians’ caretakers, the statement said, so they do not have the right to relinquish Palestinians’ rights.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday that the Zionist regime’s authorities banned, for the fourth time in a row, the entrance of medial equipment and devices to the Gaza Strip.

Director of WHO’s office in Gaza Mahmoud Al-Thakir said the regime’s authorities banned Thursday the entrance of a big truck loaded with medical equipment and devices, special computers, and spare parts for damaged medical machines.

He said that it is the forth time that the Zionist regime’s authorities ban the truck from entering Gaza in six months, although the regime has approved its entrance.

He stressed that the Zionist authorities had no reason to prevent the truck from reaching Gaza, emphasizing that the health situation in the Strip was worsening continuously.

Many important medical devices in the Strip were damaged, including a mammogram device in southern Gaza, and dozens of X-ray and dialysis machines, and other devices used to treat cardio and diabetes patients, he noted.

He pointed out that the truck was donated by WHO to assist the health sector in Gaza.

Gaza’s hospitals are suffering from medicine and medical equipment shortage since Israel imposed a siege on the Strip in 2007.

Legal international organizations had said the health situation was worsening because the occupying regime banned the entry of medical equipments to Gaza and banned sick Palestinians from leaving the Strip to seek treatment abroad.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has urged Arab and Muslim leaders to take practical steps to end the Israeli assaults on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem (al-Quds).

On Sunday, Haniyeh, who is the elected prime minister of Palestine, asked Organization of the Islamic Conference Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu to arrange for an emergency meeting of the OIC to discuss the attacks on Islam’s third holiest shrine.

He also called on Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa, and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud al-Faysal to take practical steps to protect Al-Aqsa.

Following the deployment of hundreds of security forces by Israel in and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque early on Sunday, clashes broke out between the Palestinians and the Israeli forces. At least 30 Palestinians were injured and 20 arrested.

“It was the first time the Israeli army locked the gates of the mosque with chains, barring the call to prayer, breaking into its yards for long periods of time,” Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Mashaal said in remarks denouncing the Israeli attack.

IRI Government approved on Sunday to designate January 19 as ‘day of Gaza’.

According to Qods News Agency, the bill to approve the day was forwarded in a formal session of the cabinet, Sunday evening.

January 19 is the day when the 22-day Israeli war on Gaza ended, leaving more than 1400 Palestinian people killed, mostly civilians.

Lebanese and Palestinian Islamic and Christian media and cultural centers in a conference in Beirut urged preservation of Qods’ cause against the Zionists threats.

Representatives from Palestinian and Lebanese Islamic and Christian organizations issued a statement in which they agreed on armed resistance as the only choice against the racist and occupation policies of the Zionist regime, IRIB reported from Beirut on Saturday.

The statement declared the resistance against Israel is a war of all liberation movements across the world and slammed the silence of Arab governments over the regime’s crimes.

The statement urged all Arab states to cut ties with the Zionist regime.

Palestinian sources say Israel is working on a new settlement plan that is equal to the grab of nearly 140-thousand acres of Arab land near Jerusalem (al-Quds).

The new project focuses on the areas located around al-Quds by expanding the Maale Adumim settlement and connecting other settlements around the city.

Based on the same plan, Israeli authorities have envisaged altering the current Arab-Jew proportion of the population in the city. By 2020, they are expecting the Jewish settlers to form 88 percent of the whole population.

Despite the widespread international condemnations and an apparent US opposition against Tel Aviv’s settlement activities, the Israeli government has also authorized construction of hundreds of new housing units in the occupied territories of the West Bank.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in all of the West Bank including East Jerusalem to be illegal and a major obstacle on the way to permanent peace in the Middle East.

The Palestinian Authority has ruled out any peace talks with Tel Aviv, until the Israeli side proves its commitment to a complete halt to settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Some 500,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while 2,500 more housing units are currently under construction.