In a statement on Friday, Sadr also urged the neighboring countries to allow his followers to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave, where israel has cut off the supply of food, water, electricity, and fuel.

“We also hope you allow your Sadrist brothers to hold peaceful and humanitarian million-man strikes on the Palestinian borders with your beloved countries in the upcoming days, and anyone else from the Arab, Muslim, and humanitarian nations that would like to join the protests,” he said.

Sadr, who commands a large base of loyalists in Iraq, has been a vocal critic of israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, which began on October 7 after Hamas launched a surprise attack against zionist targets.

Since then, more than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured, according to Palestinian health officials.

Sadr’s call for protests follows a similar move by his supporters last month, when thousands of them gathered at Baghdad’s Tahrir Square and Iraq’s border with Jordan to express their support for the Palestinian cause.

Sadr is known for organizing “million-man” protests, a tradition that dates back to his late father, Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, who led mass demonstrations against the rule of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. (ILKHA)