Israel’s War On Gaza Continues As Palestinians Mark The Nakba’s 78th Anniversary

Every May 15, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba of 1948 as Israel’s war on Gaza continues to be described by Truthout as an ongoing catastrophe that “completely flattens the Gaza Strip.”

“A year after their expulsion from the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nour Shams camps, the refugees are not only waiting to be able to return home but also to reclaim the rights that the camps had guaranteed them”

Agence Media Palestine

Truthout’s Dr. Mohammed Khattab, born in 1945 in Beersheba and displaced during the Nakba to the Gaza Strip, said, “I cannot remember what my life looked like before the Nakba.”

Agence Media Palestine

In the same account, Khattab told Truthout that “Today marks the 78th anniversary of our Nakba,” while describing a “2023–2025 Nakba” that he said has replayed “in a more brutal, devastating, and bloodcurdling way.”

TRT World also framed the 78th anniversary as a moment when the Nakba is “still unfolding today,” quoting Yusuf Abu Hamam, 78, in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp: “There is no country left, a square kilometre and a half extending from the sea… it's indescribable, unbearable.”

TRT World linked the “second Nakba” to the October 2023 war, saying that “Around 2.1 million people were displaced” and that it “reminded people in the Global North” about the 1948 Nakba being repeated through displacement in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

In the same TRT World report, Meritorious Professor of International Relations Moonis Ahmar said, “Through the print media, electronic media and social media, it created a sort of awareness about what the Nakba was in 1948 and how it is being repeated today.”

Al Jazeera

Middle East Monitor described the 1948 Nakba as involving “over 900,000 Palestinians” forcibly displaced and “approximately 531 villages” destroyed, and it said that “By May 2026, the number of martyrs had surpassed 73,000.”

Middle East Monitor added that “Over 102,000 buildings have been completely destroyed, and 330,000 housing units have been damaged,” while also describing displacement in Gaza as “about 2.4 million Palestinians” forcibly uprooted within the Strip.

Al Jazeera described the West Bank’s “third Nakba” through the account of Abu Najjeh, the mukhtar of Ein Samiya, speaking from a tent in the outskirts of Rammun as he rushed to find his sons amid violence in Jiljilyya.

“"You no longer have a home here”

Human Rights Watch

Al Jazeera said that settlers rampaged through Jiljilyya, Sinjil and Abwein, and it reported that “The armed settlers opened fire on residents, shooting Yousef dead.”

Human Rights Watch described a parallel pattern in the northern West Bank, quoting an Israeli soldier telling Leila E., a 54-year-old Palestinian refugee in the Jenin refugee camp, “You no longer have a home here. You must leave.”

Human Rights Watch also said Israel launched its “Iron Wall” operation on January 21, 2025, and it reported that the operation forced about 32,000 people to leave three camps, while adding that displaced civilians must be allowed to return once hostilities have ceased.