Palestinians March in South Lebanon to Mark “Nakba Day”

Hundreds of Palestinians in Lebanon marked on Friday the 62nd anniversary of the Nakba, the "catastrophe" of the birth of "Israel" that sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into exodus. 

Supporters of the Islamist Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, gathered at refugee camps in both Beirut and southern Lebanon before making their way to Maroun Al Ras village near the Palestinian border. 

The demonstrators raised Palestinian flags and the green flag of Hamas as well as pictures of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassine and Khaled Meshaal, the movement's current leader who lives in exile in Damascus. They also performed the Friday prayers together. 

Some peered across the border through binoculars, and elderly refugees could be heard recounting the tale of their exodus to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
"We will not give up on our right to return," Ali Barakeh, Hamas' representative in Lebanon, told the crowd in Maroun Al Ras. 

"The 62nd commemoration is an incentive to continue our resistance," he said.
"Negotiations and peace have not produced any results and clearly will not lead our people home." 

The 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as Nakba, meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs were expelled from their homes by Zionist gangs, during the creation of the state of "Israel". 

Palestinian refugees are today estimated at some 4.7 million. 

According to the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, Lebanon is home to nearly 400,000 refugees, where most of them live in 12 impoverished camps across the country.
Other figures put the number at between 250,000 and 270,000 as UNRWA does not strike off its list those who emigrate from Lebanon.