JERUSALEM — This year, Palestinians are commemorating the 77th anniversary of their mass displacement from the land now known as Israel, a pivotal moment in their ongoing struggle for national identity and rights. However, their historical trauma is now compounded by the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, especially following remarks by President Donald Trump suggesting that the U.S. take control of the area and resettle displaced Palestinians elsewhere.
The term Nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic, describes the expulsion of roughly 700,000 Palestinians, which constituted a majority of the pre-war population, before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. After the conflict, Israel barred their return to their former homes to maintain a Jewish majority within its borders, resulting in a continuing refugee crisis that has created a community of about 6 million displaced Palestinians. Many of them now live in dire conditions within overcrowded urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In Gaza, refugees and their descendants make up approximately three-quarters of the population. The long-standing denial of their right to return has become a significant source of grievance among Palestinians and has been a central issue in peace negotiations that stalled 15 years ago. The refugee camps often serve as hotspots for Palestinian militant activity.
Currently, many Palestinians are concerned about potentially witnessing a repeat of their tragic history, possibly on an even wider scale. Recently, as a ceasefire came into effect following the conflict between Israel and Hamas, many Palestinians began traveling to visit the remnants of their homes that were destroyed during the war. The images of mass evacuations echo historical black-and-white photographs from 1948.
Mustafa al-Gazzar, now in his 80s, vividly remembers his family’s arduous escape from their village in what is now central Israel to the southern city of Rafah when he was just five years old. His memories of the bombing and the makeshift lodging beneath trees underscore the deep-rooted trauma ingrained in his experience. Today, he finds himself displaced once more—this time living in a tent in Muwasi, where 450,000 Palestinians struggle with harsh living conditions. Al-Gazzar reflects that the current plight is more severe than what he endured in 1948 when the United Nations typically provided essential aid.
“My hope in 1948 was to return, but my hope today is to survive,” he stated somberly.
The recent conflict in Gaza, initiated by Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, has tragically led to the death of over 47,000 Palestinians, marking this confrontation as the most lethal so far within the ongoing conflict. Initial attacks by Hamas resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 Israelis. Approximately 1.7 million Palestinians, or three-quarters of Gaza’s population, have been forced to flee their homes multiple times, far exceeding the number displaced during the 1948 war.
With Israel sealing its borders and Egypt allowing only a limited number of Palestinians to exit—fearing a significant refugee influx—the situation remains dire. The global community has expressed strong opposition to any mass displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, a sentiment not shared by some far-right members of the Israeli government who refer to such actions as “voluntary emigration.”
Israel maintains that 1948 refugees should be integrated into host nations, viewing the demand for their return as impractical and a potential threat to Israel’s identity as a Jewish-majority state. However, historical precedents, such as the absorption of Jews fleeing Arab countries post-establishment, complicate this narrative, as few Jewish immigrants express a desire to return to their former homes.
Even without an outright expulsion, many Palestinians fear that a return to their homes may be unattainable, or that the extensive destruction caused by the conflict will render living conditions unfeasible. Estimates suggest that rebuilding Gaza’s infrastructure could take until 2040.
In contrast to the lighter weaponry employed by Jewish militias during the 1948 war, Israel has launched one of the fiercest military campaigns in modern history against Gaza, often deploying heavy bombs in densely populated neighborhoods. Countless residential areas have been reduced to rubble, littered with the risks of unexploded ordnance.
Yara Asi, an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who has studied the impact of the conflict, emphasizes the considerable effort that would be needed for any international initiative aimed at reconstructing Gaza.
Long before the recent hostilities, many Palestinians articulated a sense of an ongoing Nakba—a gradual process of displacement exacerbated by home demolitions, settlement expansion, and other policies viewed by prominent human rights organizations as manifestations of apartheid, claims that Israel vigorously opposes.
Asi and others share concerns that if a new Nakba unfolds, it may be characterized not by overt forceful removals but under the guise of “emigration,” masking a stark reality for those who have struggled to maintain their ties to their homeland under increasingly untenable conditions.
“Ultimately, it’s about people who wish to remain, who have fought to stay for generations, reaching a breaking point where life becomes insufferable,” Asi remarked.
