As explosions echoed over Tehran and the United States vowed to intensify strikes against Iran, hundreds gathered in Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday for an annual Quds Day rally, waving Iranian flags and voicing solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Quds Day, observed on the last Friday of Ramadan, drew demonstrators to the streets of Cape Town.

Khaled Sayed, Leader of the Opposition in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature, told the crowd: "The only crime the people of Iran have committed is to stand with Palestine.

Their crime in the eyes of Western powers is solidarity—a similar crime we are committing as South Africans."

Another speaker called for unity against injustice: "People suffering under white supremacy, the billionaire classes—we as ordinary people must stand together irrespective of creed or persuasion."

Conflict intensifies

Meanwhile in Tehran, AFP journalists reported loud explosions as Israel's military said it had carried out 7,600 strikes since the war began on February 28, mostly targeting Iran's missile program.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to bombard Iran "more heavily than any other day so far."

Escalating rhetoric

President Donald Trump posted on social media that he viewed killing Iran's rulers "a great honour," calling them "deranged scumbags." He later told Fox News Radio the US would be "hitting Iran hard over the next week."

The hardline stances and renewed strikes show no let-up in the conflict engulfing the Middle East and roiling global energy markets.