The Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the Fatah-dominated West Bank commemorated in separate rallies the "Nakba Day", or the Catastrophe Day.

The Palestinians, who call the day when Israel was established in 1948 the "Nakba Day," marked the 61st anniversary of the day by separate demonstrations on Thursday in the West Bank and on Friday in Gaza.

In Gaza, thousands of Hamas and pro-Iran Islamic Jihad movements' supporters rallied on Friday afternoon in different areas to commemorate the Nakba Day.

Demonstrators in northern Gaza Strip called for the Palestinian refugees' right of return and for ending the two-year-old tight Israeli blockade on the enclave. They also called for unity and ending the rift between Gaza and West Bank.

On Thursday, Fatah movement and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) commemorated the anniversary by staging rallies and demonstrations in different West Bank cities and villages.

Hamas security forces prevented Fatah supporters on Thursday from rallying in Gaza to mark the Nakba Day. Fatah spokesman in the West Bank Fahmi Za'arir slammed the Hamas move of preventing Fatah to commemorate the day.

Meanwhile, Ahmed Bahar, a senior Hamas leader and deputy speaker of parliament (PLC) dominated by Hamas told the crowds of demonstrators in northern Gaza that "the right of return is an individual and massive legitimate right."

"Anyone who makes a concession on this holy and legitimate right will be committing the crime of high treason," Bahar told the crowds after Friday prayers north of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.

He added that all the Palestinian people "reject replacement or compensation. The only thing our people would accept is to get their right of return to historic Palestine by legal armed resistance allowed by the international laws."

The Palestinian refugees said that in the summer of 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes after armed Jewish guerrillas stormed their villages and forced them to leave after hundreds of them were slaughtered.

The refugees fled to neighboring countries like Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where many of them went to the West Bank, which was under Jordan's rule and to Gaza which was under Egypt's rule. The United Nations helped the refugees and lodged them in refugee camps.

According to UN Relief and Works Agency official figures, there are 5 million Palestinian refugees living in the Palestinian territories, in Arab countries and other parts of the world.

Israel rejects the idea of right of return to Israel, saying that in any future peace solution, the Palestinian refugees can only return to their independent state, which will be established in the West Bank and Gaza.

(Xinhua News Agency May 16, 2009)