Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has described the Palestinian issue as the greatest test of the international system’s credibility in a letter to the United Nations marking the 78th anniversary of Nakba Day.
"Whoever believes that peace and security can be achieved without realizing the rights of the Palestinian people, ensuring the independence of their state on the 1967 borders, and uprooting the Israeli occupation from it, regardless of how long it takes, is delusional," he wrote.
In his letter, the head of the Palestinian Authority called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
"Gaza is an integral part of the State of Palestine, and transitional arrangements must be conducive to the reunification of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, paving the way for the realization of our people’s right to self-determination and the independence of our State," he writes.
"After all this death, destruction, displacement, and devastation, the time has come for life, recovery, and rebuilding."
The Palestinians mark Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe) every year on May 15, one day after the anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.
On this day, they commemorate the flight and expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians during the First Arab-Israeli War in 1948.
According to UN figures, the number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants has now risen to around 6 million.
Along with the dispute over the future status of Jerusalem, the refugee issue is one of the most complex questions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
