Thousands of flag-waving Palestinians marched in northern Israel on Tuesday to commemorate the flight and forced flight of Palestinians during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, and to demand the right of refugees to return.

Many of the about 3,000 people also called for an end to the conflict in Gaza as they took part in the march near the city of Haifa marking the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe”, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.

Many held up Palestinian flags and wore keffiyeh head scarves during the annual Return March, a rare Palestinian demonstration permitted to go ahead in Israel as the crisis in the Gaza Strip rages on.

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