Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh urged Palestinians in the country and abroad to take to the streets on Nakba Day, which falls on May 15, to affirm their inalienable right to return to their homeland.

The PM called on supporters of the Palestinian cause to join the protests to demand the end of oppression against Palestinians.

Nakba Day commemorates the displacement of around 800,000 out of 1.4 million Palestinians from their cities and towns with the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Head of the Refugee Affairs Department, and Head of the Supreme National Committee to Commemorate Nakba Day, Dr. Ahmed Abu Holi said Nakba Day will be commemorated in the Palestinians territories and abroad and at the Arab League and United Nations.

Marches will be held in Ramallah, Gaza, and in refugee camps in the diaspora on Monday.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, which will be commemorated for the first time by the UN at its headquarters in New York. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will attend the event and deliver speech on the occasion.

Shtayyeh hoped that the recognition would kickstart “a wide and effective international step” against the “war of annihilation and the ethnic purging by the Israeli apartheid system against Palestinians”, and against the “unprecedented escalation by the occupation forces through murders and field executions”.

The PM added that the ongoing killing, expansion of settlements, and seizure of lands and property are “a continuation of the Nakba”.

The total Palestinian population around the world last year reached about 14 million, marking a ten-fold increase since the Nakba.

By the end of 2022, the population in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, reached 3.2 million, and about 2.1 million in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) noted that by December 2020, it had registered a total of 6.4 million Palestinian refugees.

Around 28.4 percent of the refugees live in 58 UNRWA camps. Ten camps are located in Jordan, nine in Syria, 12 in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank, and eight in the Gaza Strip.