Palestinians marching to remember those displaced at the time of the 1948 founding of Israel clashed with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Monday, leaving several wounded. Annual marches are held on May 15 to mark what Palestinians call the "Nakba," or catastrophe in Arabic. At a checkpoint on the outskirts of Ramallah, dozens of Palestinian youths hurled rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded with rubber bullets and the foul-smelling riot control spray known as skunk.

A Palestinian emergency worker said that 11 Palestinians were taken to hospital, most of them wounded by rubber bullets. The extent of their injuries was not known. Earlier, thousands of people carrying Palestinian flags marched through the city, many carrying large keys to symbolise their claims to the homes they lost in 1948. "I come every year to commemorate this anniversary, this catastrophe," said Salha Orabi, a descendant of refugees and now a resident of the nearby Jelazoun refugee camp.

"The Nakba for us symbolises destruction," he added. "It is us who have left our homes and our land." In Bethlehem, hundreds of Palestinians stoned Israeli troops guarding the tomb of biblical matriarch Rachel, a shrine venerated by Jews and Muslims, an AFP photographer said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017