At least eight people were killed and dozens injured as thousands of Palestinians at home and abroad marked the Nakba Day, which marks the creation of Israel.“The return is a practice, not a slogan,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told a meeting with refugees in Ramallah.
Thousands of Palestinians marked the Nakba Day, which marks the creation of Israel on the rubble of Palestine.
But the event was marked by deadly clashes, which left at least eight people dead and dozens injured.
At least four people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire at dozens of Palestinian refugees who infiltrated into Israel-occupied Golan Heights from Syria.
Four Palestinians were also killed after Israeli forces fired at rock-throwing protesters to prevent them from crossing the border, witnesses told Reuters.
The Lebanese army had also earlier fired in the air in an attempt to hold back the crowds.
On Israel’s tense southern border with the Gaza Strip, Israeli gunfire wounded 60 Palestinians as demonstrators approached Israel’s fence with Gaza, medical workers said.
In Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, a truck driven by an Arab Israeli slammed into vehicles and pedestrians, killing one man and injuring 17 people.
Police were trying to determine whether the incident was an accident or an attack.
Witnesses said the driver, who was arrested, ran amok with his truck in downtown traffic.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian youths threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, who fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a clash at the Israeli military checkpoint outside the city of Ramallah — a constant flashpoint.
A Palestinian teenager was shot dead during protests in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem) on Friday.
Each year on May 15, Palestinians mourn the loss of Palestine and creation of Israel on its rubble in 1948.
On April 18, 1948, Palestinian Tiberius was captured by Menachem Begin’s Irgun group, putting its 5,500 Palestinian residents in flight. On April 22, Haifa fell to the Zionist mobs and 70,000 Palestinians fled.
On April 25, Irgun began bombarding civilian sectors of the Palestinian city of Jaffa – the largest city in Palestine at that time, terrifying the 750,000 inhabitants into panicky flight.
On May 14, the day before the creation of Israel, Jaffa completely surrendered to the much better-equipped Zionist gangs and only about 4,500 of its population remained.
Refugees’ Return
The Palestinians reiterated that they will not give up the right of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.
“The Palestinian leadership will never give up the right of return,” Abbas said.
“It will take practical steps to return to the homeland end life in the diaspora, because our final destination is the homeland.”
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, defines as refugees the descendants of Palestinian who fled or were forced out of their homes in 1948.
The number of registered refugees has subsequently grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than 4.4 million in 2005, and continues to rise.
UN resolutions guarantee the right of return of Palestinian refugees, many still holding the keys and titles of their homes in what is now Israel.
The marking of the Nakba Day comes as the Palestinians celebrate a deal to heal rift between the rival Hamas and Fatah groups.
Hamas Prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said that the Palestinians marked this year’s Nakba “with great hope of bringing to an end the Zionist project in Palestine.”
Haniyeh also praised the historical unity deal between Hamas Fatah, which the two groups signed in Egypt earlier this month.
“To achieve our goals in the liberation of our occupied land, we should have one leadership.”
Source: OnIslam
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