Palestinians Mark Nakba Anniversary As Benjamin Netanyahu, Itamar Ben-Gvir Escalate Gaza Devastation

Palestinians marked the Nakba anniversary as Gaza devastation continues, with the South African Star saying that “On 15 May 2026, Palestinians will mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba,” and linking the commemoration to “the ongoing devastation in Gaza.”

“AA / Ramallah / Qais Abou Samra The Palestinian people are about to mark this Wednesday the 76th anniversary of the Nakba (or the Great Catastrophe), against the backdrop of an Israeli deadly offensive against the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing since October 7, 2023”

Anadolu Ajansı

The South African Star frames the escalation as tied to Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir, saying “The escalation promoted by Benjamin Netanyahu and ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir reflects political and strategic motivations tied to territorial ambitions and domestic power.”

Anadolu Ajansı

An Anadolu Ajansı report ties the Nakba commemoration to the ongoing Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip that has been “ongoing since October 7, 2023,” and says Palestinians use the word “Nakba” for 1948 events when “armed Zionist militias forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes and villages.”

An Anadolu Ajansı account also places the commemoration in a wider set of figures, including that the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said “about 134,000 Palestinians and Arabs have been killed inside and outside of Palestine since 1948.”

Association France Palestine Solidarité describes the Nakba as “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society in 1948,” and says that “Between 1947 and 1949, Zionist forces captured more than 78% of historic Palestine.”

In that same account, the organization says Palestinians are still “not allowed to return home,” and it describes the Nakba narrative as one of “expulsion under threat of arms by Zionist militias backed by the West.”

Association France Palestine Solidarité

The South African Star’s framing of the present includes a specific claim about Itamar Ben-Gvir’s fiftieth birthday, saying his wife reportedly presented him with “a cake decorated with a noose symbol.”

Revolution Permanente places the Nakba commemoration in the context of current war, saying “While Israel is waging a genocidal war unprecedented in the past year and a half,” and adds that the Security Cabinet has approved a “plan of conquest” of Gaza and the deportation of the two million Gazans.

An Anadolu Ajansı report says the PCBS estimated that the Nakba of 1948 caused “the expulsion of nearly one million Palestinians out of the 1.4 million people who lived in 1,300 towns and villages in Palestine.”

“May 15 is Nakba Day and, this year, the 78th anniversary of the dispossession that created the Palestinian refugee crisis and established the political conditions that define the region to this day”

Mondoweiss

That same Anadolu Ajansı account says Israel took control of “774 Palestinian towns and villages during the Nakba,” including “531 towns and villages that were completely destroyed by Zionist militias,” and it adds that the militias carried out “more than 70 massacres” killing “more than 15,000 Palestinians.”

Mondoweiss says the Nakba continues in the present through what it describes as stolen financial wealth, quoting Najib Antoine Jabre’s estimate that “the total value of that stolen property” is “over $100 billion.”

Mondoweiss also links the continuing stakes to current conditions in Gaza, stating that “Tareq Hajjaj reports on a rodent infestation that has produced more than 70,000 infections this year,” and says “Health officials now consider a plague outbreak a real possibility.”