Gaza, ALRAY - Hamas’s Department of Refugee Affairs welcomed the calls to launch a global campaign to defend the Palestinian refugees’ right of return to their homes.

London-based Quds Press website reported previously that, Salman Abu Sitta, a Palestinian researcher and Founder of Palestine Land Society has called for the launch of a global Palestinian campaign with the slogan of "He Who Gives Up Right of Return Does Not Represent Us".

Head of the department Issam Odwan said on Tuesday in a statement that “it is necessary to give a greater publicity to this campaign across the world, particularly as the right of return is undergoing a fierce attack that threatens the fate of Palestinian refugees in Diaspora".

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman revealed on Tuesday, January 28, in a column titled "Why Kerry Is Scary" details of what he believes will be included in the proposal.

He wrote "It will call for the Palestinians to have a capital in Arab east Jerusalem and for Palestinians to recognize Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. It will not include any right of return for Palestinian refugees into Israel proper."

Some 800,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes inside Israel during the 1948 conflict that led to the creation of the State of “Israel”, and today their descendants number around five million, spread across the world.