Ramallah – Together – Action Aid said that the 76th anniversary of the Nakba coincides with the displacement of Palestinians from their homes at unprecedented rates, as the ground operation on Rafah led to hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the city. May 15 of each year marks the anniversary of the Nakba, when more than 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homeland in 1948. Palestinians were subjected to repeated waves of displacement, displacement, and asylum over the decades after the Nakba, and today Palestinians face displacement at unprecedented rates.
She added, “Most of the population of the Gaza Strip were refugees even before October 7, as it was inhabited by 80% of refugees and their descendants who were displaced from their villages and homes during the Nakba in 1948, according to Human Rights Watch. There are more than seven million Palestinian refugees as a result of the Nakba, All over the countries of the world, including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon – many of them are unable to re
turn to the homes and property from which they were displaced, which is their right according to UN General Assembly Resolution 3236, which calls for the inalienable right of Palestinians to return. To their homes and property from which they were displaced and uprooted.’
She said, “More than 75% of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.2 million people have been displaced from their homes since October 7, and most of the residents were forced to move several times amid very dangerous conditions, with no hope of finding any safe place to live.”
She pointed out that the residents of the Gaza Strip are today facing a new wave of mass displacement in the Strip after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for parts of Rafah, which is inhabited by more than a million people. An estimated 450,000 people have already been displaced from the city, according to UNRWA, yet there is nowhere safe for them to go, nor is there the space, resources or infrastructure to accommodate them.
She pointed out that the number of P
alestinians who have been displaced from their homes since October 7 in the West Bank has also risen, with about 4,000 Palestinians being displaced in 2023 – the highest number ever recorded in a single year, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs due to settler violence. Israelis, movement restrictions and demolitions by Israeli forces.
ActionAid Palestine’s communications and advocacy officer, Reham Jaafari, said: ‘Nearly half a million people fled Rafah within days and arrived in the so-called humanitarian areas, only to find that there was no place for them, and they could not obtain basic necessities, due to the overcrowding of the areas.’ And a lack of resources. This situation causes the spread of diseases and greatly worsens the already dire humanitarian situation. Palestinians are treated like pieces in a chess game, with repeated displacements depriving them of any modicum of stability and certainty.
‘The ground operation in Rafah must be stopped to sto
p further forced displacement, and Gaza needs a permanent ceasefire now – it is time to put an end to the killing and provide people with the humanitarian relief they desperately need,’ she added.
Source: Maan News Agency
