Thousands of Palestinians marched in central Ramallah and in the Gaza Strip Sunday, to mark what is known in Arabic as the "Nakba" (catastrophe) Day, DPA reported.
The day commemorates the dispersal of some 800,000 Palestinians to refugee camps in the region, as they fled or were expelled from their villages in what is now Israel in the Arab-Israeli war of 1948.
Waving black and Palestinian flags, the protesters in Ramallah made the up to 10-minute walk from the Palestinian Authority headquarters, with the memorial of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, to Manara Square in the central West Bank city.
A siren wailed through the city centre in a sign of mourning.
Palestinian Authoriy security forces were deployed and prevented people from reaching the Qalandia military checkpoint outside the city to clash with Israeli soldiers, in a bid to prevent an escalation.
In Gaza, scores of buses took thousands of protesters to a junction north of Gaza City, from where they headed to the Erez border crossing with Israel, and to the town of Rafah in the south of the strip, from where they marched to the border with Egypt.
For the first time in four years, supporters of Fatah and Hamas marched together, as leaders of all factions held speeches. The two rival movements signed a reconciliation agreement earlier this months, after years of feuding.
The protesters also wore traditional Arab headdresses, and many women walked in traditional Palestinian robes.
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