PALESTINIANS have clashed with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank during demonstrations to mark 65 years since what they call the Nakba (Catastrophe) when Israel's creation caused many to lose their homes.
A shell fired from Gaza, which is ruled by the Islamist movement Hamas, exploded in Israel yesterday but caused no injuries, according to an Israeli military spokesman. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is to return to the region in another bid to revive peace talks frozen since 2010.
But a resolution remains elusive and many Palestinians cling to a desire for refugees and descendants to return to ancestral lands now in Israel – an idea Israel rejects, saying it would spell the end of the Jewish state.
Protesters battled with Israeli forces outside a refugee camp near the West Bank city of Hebron and at a jail near Ramallah, leaving several Palestinians hurt.
Israeli police in Jerusalem scuffled with Palestinian protesters, tossing stun grenades and making several arrests. Thousands also rallied in the main square of Ramallah, the Palestinians' de facto capital while Jerusalem remains under Israeli control, holding up placards with the names of villages depopulated in 1948.
According to Palestinian figures, 5.3 million Palestinians are registered as refugees in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the West Bank.
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