The war in Gaza has forced some 1.7 million Palestinians to flee their homes, often multiple times – well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war
Palestinians living in Israel hold Palestinian flags as they take part in the annual Return March to mark the 76th anniversary of the Nakba, near Haifa, in northern Israel, on May 14.Palestinians on Wednesday will mark the 76th year of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle. But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the
Mustafa al-Gazzar, now 81, still recalls his family’s monthslong flight from their village in what is now central Israel to the southern city of Rafah, when he was 5. At one point they were bombed from the air, at another, they dug holes under a tree to sleep in for warmth. The war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed over 35,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, making it by far the deadliest round of fighting in the history of the conflict. The initial Hamas attack killed some 1,200 Israelis.
The international community is strongly opposed to any mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza – an idea embraced by far-right members of the Israeli government, who refer to it as “voluntary emigration.” The Jewish militias in the 1948 war with the armies of neighbouring Arab nations were mainly armed with lighter weapons like rifles, machine guns and mortars. Hundreds of depopulated Palestinian villages were demolished after the war, while Israelis moved into Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, Jaffa and other cities.
Yara Asi, a Palestinian assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who has done research on the damage to civilian infrastructure in the war, says it’s “extremely difficult” to imagine the kind of international effort that would be necessary to rebuild Gaza.
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