Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations    

    GAZA, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that the occupation of the Palestinian territories should finish and the human disgrace called "Nakba" should be put to an end.

    Abbas made the statements in his speech to the Palestinian people to mark sixty years for what the Palestinians term as "Nakba" Day, the day when Israel was established in 1948.

Palestinians wave to each other across the border between Lebanon and Israel in a protest near the Lebanese village Marwahin May 14, 2008. Palestinians mark Nakba, or "Catastrophe", commemorating when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    "In this anniversary, Israel should halt all its settlement projects if it really doesn't want to waste the present opportunity for achieving peace in the Middle East," said Abbas, adding, "our hands, which struggled over the past sixty years, are still extended for peace."

    The Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza marked on Thursday 60 years for the Nakba, Catastrophe Day.

    A central rally was held in downtown the city of Ramallah, where thousands of Palestinians waved Palestinian flags and held banners calling for solving the Palestinian cause and stressing on the Palestinian refugees' rights of return.

    Sirens were turned on in several West Bank towns, while more than 20,000 black balloons were flown into the sky in several areas to mark the Nakba.

    "Our people, who were displaced all over the world, had enough pain and enough suffering. In spite of this suffering, our people have made peace its strategic choice in order to build the future of this region," said Abbas.

    He expressed the Palestinian people's readiness "to carry on with the peace negotiations until we reach an agreement on a comprehensive peace leads to ending the occupation and establishing our independent state."

    "Sixty years had passed and our people are still dreaming for freedom, sixty years had passed and our people still have the hope to return and to end the odious occupation of our lands," said Abbas.

A Palestinian man reacts on the border between Lebanon and Israel during a protest near the Lebanese village Marwahin May 14, 2008. Palestinians mark Nakba, or "Catastrophe", commemorating when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homes in the war that led to the founding of Israel in 1948.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>