GAZA/RAMALLAH - Thousands of Palestinians demonstrated on Sunday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, marking the 74th anniversary of Nakba Day, or "Day of the Catastrophe", the day after Israel declared its independence in 1948.

The Ramallah-based Palestinians took part in a demonstration invited by the Supreme National Committee to commemorate the Nakba of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), while mourning whistles sounded for 74 seconds, referring to the number of years of displacement of Palestinians.

The demonstration started from the tomb of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah to the Manara square in the center of the city, with the participation of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye and a number of senior leaders of the Fatah Party led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Ishtaye told reporters that the United Nations was called upon to implement its resolutions on the Palestinian issue.

He stressed that there is a need to preserve the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) as it constitutes the cumulative memory of the Palestinian people.

"There are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees waiting for the right of return," he said.

For his part, Ahmed Abu Houli, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and head of its Refugee Affairs Department, said that "it is enough of 74 years of injustice and slander."

Abu Houli stressed the refugees' refusal in all their places of residence to accept resettlement and the homeland as an alternative and partial solution, calling for ending the internal Palestinian division and restoring national unity as the shortest way to build a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, the Palestinian factions organized demonstrations in front of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), while protestors raised Palestinian flags and banners emphasizing the right of return. Balloons were launched into the air bearing the names of villages and cities from which they were displaced.

"The Palestinian people and their resistance are still clinging to the right of return," Louay al-Qariouti, a senior official at the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said during the demonstrations.

He called on all the Palestinian factions to unify their efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation based on true partnership.

According to a report issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on the occasion of the anniversary, the number of refugees reached 6.4 million by the end of 2020.