Outraged by decades of Israeli military occupation, Palestinians Tuesday marked the 53rd anniversary of the loss of their homeland with clashes with Israeli troops in which one demonstrator was killed and at least 100 injured. Another Palestinian, a Hamas member, was assassinated earlier in the day.
Mohammed Abu Jasser, 18, received a bullet in the upper part of his body in Beit Hanoun during clashes with Israeli troops, said the Palestinian news agency, WAFA.
50 other Palestinians were also injured in the clashes, said WAFA.
From the Nusseirat, Bureij and Mughazi refugee camps in the center of the Gaza Strip, some 30,000 people walked to the main north-south road, said the Associated Press.
The crowd chanted "no surrender" and "The uprising will continue until we uproot the occupiers from our land."
Several old men carried keys to their former homes in what is now Israel, and gunmen fired in the air.
Amina Abu Sadda, 55, wearing a traditional black robe with red embroidery, said she was two years old when she was displaced.
"I have fed my children, mixed in with the mother's milk, the words `right of return,'" she told the agency as she walked in the march.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians jammed streets and town squares in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, standing in silence during a mournful three-minute siren to mark the Nakba.
After the ceremonies, several hundred Palestinians clashed with Israeli troops.
Tens of Palestinians were wounded by live fire and several more by rubber-coated steel bullets, said the AP.
Al Jazeera satellite TV channel reported that the violent clashes took place in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The TV’s correspondent said that the clashes flared when two Israeli tanks advanced until they reached areas under PA control.
In Nablus, some 30,000 Palestinians jammed the main square.
The governor of the city, Mahmoud Aloul, told the crowd that the struggle against Israel must continue. "We must fight the killers of our children," said Aloul, whose son, Jihad, was killed by Israeli fire in clashes with Israeli troops late last year.
HAMAS VOWS REVENGE FOR ACTIVIST’S ASSASSINATION
Hamas swore to avenge the death of Abdel Karim Manameh, 35, who was killed by Israeli tank fire targeting his car.
Previous reports said that the activist was killed in a gunship attack.
"Our reaction will be like an earthquake that will rock the ground under the feet of the Zionists," said Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas spokesman, cited by the AP.
ARAFAT: JUST PEACE COMES ONLY BY ENDING OCCUPATION, SETTLEMENT
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said Tuesday that a just peace that guarantees security for both the Palestinians and the Israelis could be ensured only when Israel ends its occupation and settlement activities in the occupied territories.
In a recorded speech on the 53rd anniversary of the Nakba, Arafat called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities and work to end the plight of his people, against whom Israel is using excessive force and an economic siege.
The president repeated accusations that Israel has used poisonous gases and internationally prohibited weapons in its attacks on “peaceful residents.”
However, “the Palestinian people will not accept this ‘black destiny’ and will stand up to the great conspiracy.”
Arafat said the report drafted by the US-led Mitchell committee on ways to bring a halt to the violence, and the Egyptian-Jordanian peace plan, can serve as a platform to restart peace negotiations.
Arafat reiterated that the UN resolutions 242, 338 and 194 should be fully implemented as the only path for a comprehensive and lasting peace in the region.
The resolutions call for Israeli withdrawal from the lands occupied in 1967, and the return of the four million Palestinian refugees to their lands from which they were displaced in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The Palestinian TV and Arab satellite channels showed footage of thousands of Palestinians gathering in the centers of Palestinian towns to mark the Nakba. According to schedule, sirens sounded at midday and demonstrators stood silent for three minutes in the memory of martyrs who have fallen during the struggle against the occupation.
Later, renowned Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish delivered “a message to the world” on behalf of the Palestinians.
“We are still living the Nakba after 53 years…we have not forgotten,” he said in the televised speech.
“But the makers of the Nakba have not been able to break the will of the Palestinians ...or falsify the truth,” he added, reiterating Arafat’s statement that international legitimacy should be implemented to achieve peace - Albawaba.com
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