Palestinians rally in occupied lands to mark Nakba Day

Thousands of Palestinians living in occupied territories have held rallies to mark the 67th anniversary of the Nakba (catastrophe) Day, when Israeli forces displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land.

The protesters, carrying Palestinian flags, gathered in some regions in the northern parts of the occupied lands on Thursday.

“Our grandfathers who suffered displacement asked us not to sell our land and to return to it and not give up,” activist Hammad Abu al-Haija told a crowd of demonstrators.

“Now we tell our children and our grandchildren not to do so,” he said.

They called for the liberation of their land and the right of return for Palestinian refugees who were forced out of their homes by Israel in 1948.

More than 760,000 Palestinians – now estimated to number nearly five million with their descendants – were driven out of their homes on May 14, 1948.

Since 1948, the Israeli regime has denied Palestinian refugees the right to return, despite United Nations resolutions and international law that uphold people’s right to return to their homelands.