{"id":126346,"date":"2026-02-28T23:29:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126346\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T23:29:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T23:29:36","slug":"philadelphia-protesters-condemn-u-s-military-attacks-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/126346\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia protesters condemn U.S. military attacks on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gail Lopez-Henriquez, 71, of Old City, said she was \u201cshocked and horrified\u201d by news of the attacks and came to the protest to condemn what she said is an \u201cunconstitutional\u201d attack.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president does not have the authority to unilaterally decide to bomb another country, and I\u2019m very afraid of what this is going to mean for the entire region of the Middle East, and I\u2019m very worried about what it could mean for this country as well,\u201d she said.
\n\"PeopleDozens of people gathered at Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, to protest U.S. and Israeli military attacks on Iran. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Umer Rahman, 44, of Chesterbrook, Chester County, stopped by the protest with his wife and two children while walking through Center City.\n<\/p>\n

He said the attacks are a \u201ccomplete 180\u201d from what he expected of the Trump administration.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would you want to have your tax or your hard-earned money to go there and to kill not just kids, but destroy billions of dollars worth of infrastructure?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s only going to help [the] military industrial complex a whole lot, and I hope cooler heads can prevail.\u201d
\n\"PeopleDozens of people gathered at Philadelphia City Hall on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, to protest U.S. and Israeli military attacks on Iran. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Steve Telturk, 34, of West Philadelphia, said he has loved ones who are Iranian and have family in Iran.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I personally want to see, you know, as an American who cares about people in Iran and cares about human life overall, is just peace immediately,\u201d he said. \u201cI do want human rights for Iranians, and I would love to see an end of the regime one day. But \u2026 war is not the way that it\u2019s going to happen. We won\u2019t see a democracy that is created and led by Iranians through U.S. military action.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u2018The closest we\u2019ve ever been to taking our country back\u2019<\/p>\n

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social<\/a> that Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was dead, seemingly confirming Israeli reports that the leader was killed in the military strikes.\n<\/p>\n

For Reza Moradinezhad, 34, a Philadelphia resident and also a member of Philly Iranians, Khamenei\u2019s death is something he and other Iranians \u201cwere wishing for.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe killed many of our friends, many of our compatriots who wanted nothing but freedom and dignity,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what is happening in Iran is the people of Iran wanting to take their country back.\u201d
\n\"IranianPhilly Iranians, a group advocating for an end to Iran\u2019s theocratic regime and aligned with the Woman Life Freedom movement, hosted several vigils and gatherings earlier this year, protesting the Iranian government killing tens of thousands of protesters. (Courtesy of Philly Iranians)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been fighting every single day, and now we see that we are getting the closest that we\u2019ve ever been to taking our country back,\u201d he said. \u201cWe feel very hopeful that the regime is eventually going to fall, but we are also concerned about our loved ones and our compatriots inside the country.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Moradinezhad criticized the lack of local media coverage of vigils and events the group hosted last month in response to the Iranian government killing tens of thousands of protesters<\/a>.
\n\"CandlesPhilly Iranians, a group advocating for an end to Iran\u2019s theocratic regime and aligned with the Woman Life Freedom movement, hosted several vigils and gatherings earlier this year, protesting the Iranian government killing tens of thousands of protesters. (Courtesy of Philly Iranians)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like we don\u2019t want to be pawns of anyone, whether it\u2019s President Trump or whether it\u2019s the liberal media,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are concerned, obviously. But more than that, we are hopeful \u2026. Really, we think this is our time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gail Lopez-Henriquez, 71, of Old City, said she was \u201cshocked and horrified\u201d by news of the attacks and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[39628,41079,5061,69,71,70,723],"class_list":{"0":"post-126346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-bombing","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news","14":"tag-trump-administration"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}