By Qais Abu Samra
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - Marking the 76th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (Great Catastrophe), a Palestinian official said Monday that the Gaza Strip "is reliving the Nakba with all its details."
Palestinians use the word "Nakba" in reference to the events of 1948, when armed Zionist militias forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes and villages under the pressure of bombing and massacres in the historical lands of Palestine, pushing them further into the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and neighboring countries in a major ethnic cleansing prior to the announcement of Israel's independence.
Speaking to Anadolu on the Nakba anniversary, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Executive Committee and head of its Refugee Affairs Department, Ahmed Abu Houli, accused the Israeli government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, of setting up a program to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by expelling the Palestinian people.
On Sunday, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released a report marking the 76th Nakba anniversary, indicating that since 1948, approximately 134,000 Palestinians and Arabs have been killed both inside and outside Palestine.
The Nakba anniversary this year is marked while the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are experiencing an Israeli devastating onslaught that has been taking place since Oct. 7, and left over 35,000 Palestinians killed.
- ‘Nakba didn't stop on May 1948, but continues’
Abu Houli noted that the Palestinian people aim to revive and commemorate the Nakba worldwide "to remind the world that the war of genocide is ongoing, and "the Israeli government took a decision to forcibly expel all the Palestinian people."
"The Nakba didn't stop on May 1948, but continues and takes several forms in the course of the Israeli war on Gaza," he said.
"Israel also targets the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank where around 450 military incursions against these camps were executed" since Oct. 7, Abu Houli added.
He noted: “All the Israeli acts prove that it is going ahead with expelling the Palestinian people, and to rebuild settlements (in Gaza) and kill the Palestinian dream in a Palestinian independent state."
- Palestinians’ right to return
The Palestinian official said the Palestinian people, despite the scale of crimes they are experiencing, are still steadfast in holding on to their lands for 76 years.
"The anniversary of Nakba means the anniversary of resilience and sticking to the right to return, our people didn't raise the white flag, despite the killing, they won't accept an alternative to the right to return," he said.
Abu Houli noted that one of the faces of the Israeli war against the Palestinian refugees is targeting the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
He said that Israel sought to deform the image of UNRWA by claiming some of its staff were part of the attack against Israel on Oct. 7, an accusation that pushed at least 18 countries to initially suspend funds to the agency.
UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly more than 70 years ago to assist Palestinians who were forcibly displaced from their land.
The agency provides crucial support to millions of Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and other areas where large numbers of registered Palestinians live.
- Settlement expansion on Palestinian territories
Abu Houli said the Israeli settlement expansion is ongoing across the West Bank with the aim to expel the Palestinian people, especially in Area C of the West Bank.
Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions – Area A, B, and C – with Area C under administrative and security control of Israel until a final status agreement is reached with the Palestinians.
He wondered if the Israeli settlers seized control of Area C of the West Bank, "where will the Palestinian state be established on the basis of the two-state solution? And if Jerusalem is also taken away!"
"Israel wants to say the two-state solution doesn't exist," Abu Houli added.
According to the official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), Israel has illegally confiscated about 27,000 decares of land in the occupied West Bank and forced 25 Palestinian communities to leave since the start of the war on Gaza last Oct. 7.
After Oct. 7, when Israel’s offensive began, CWRC said that Israeli planning authorities subjected to study “a total of 52 structural plans for the purpose of building a total of 8,829 colonial units on an area of 6,852 decares, of which 1,895 units were approved.”
- Israeli war on Gaza
Nearly 35,100 Palestinians have been killed and over 78,800 others injured in a brutal Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 people.
More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara