Mahmoud Abbas. Photo: World Economic Forum.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip commemorated Nakba Day on Wednesday in a series of rallies, processions, and demonstrations throughout the Palestinian territories marking the “catastrophe” of the Arab defeat to Israel in the 1948 War of Independence.

Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli security forces near the Bitunia and Qalandiya checkpoints, north of Jerusalem, Israel Hayom reported. Four Israeli Givati Brigade soldiers were wounded Wednesday when a Molotov cocktail exploded in their patrol car near the village of Khorsa, southwest of Hebron. Six Israeli Border Police officers were wounded in protest rallies in eastern Jerusalem.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a televised speech, “We will not give up even one inch of land from the Palestinian territories that were occupied in 1967. We will continue to fight, with determination, for an independent state with east Jerusalem as its capital.”