Lebanese to hold rallies on Nakba Day

Israeli military forces have tightened security measures near Palestinian cities ahead of the Nakba Day (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/179967.html

Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are set to march towards the borders of occupied Palestinian territories to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of Nakba Day.

Nakba Day, or the day of catastrophe, marks the 63rd anniversary of the occupation of Palestine by the Israeli army and the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their land in 1948.

The Israeli soldiers wiped nearly 500 Palestinian villages and towns off the map during the offensive, leaving the Palestinian refugees dreaming of an eventual return to their homeland more than six decades later.

Organizers of the rally expected 50,000 protesters to march towards the villages of Bint Jbail and Maroun al-Ras on Sunday, where intense fighting broke out between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters during the 2006 summer war, Jerusalem Post reported.

Thousands of Israeli troops are on high alert across the occupied lands due to the protests in the run-up to Sunday's commemoration of the Nakba Day.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians gathered in Jabaliya and Nuseirat refugee camps in the northern and central parts of the Gaza strip on Friday to commemorate the Nakba Day.

On the same day, thousands of demonstrators held Palestinian flags and a giant key symbolic of their optimism to return home in the West Bank town of Beit Lahm (Bethlehem).

In Jordan, hundreds of protesters, heeding a call from Palestinian Facebook organizers, took to the streets in the capital Amman and called for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state on Friday.