ALBAWABA - As the brutal Israeli aggression continues, Palestinians across the globe commemorate the Nakba. This catastrophe led to them being ethnically cleansed out of their homes at the expense of establishing a land for the Jewish people under what is known as the Balfour Declaration.
The Nakba caused the displacement of approximately 900,000 Palestinians from their homes throughout Palestine. The indigenous people of Palestine lived across about 1300 villages and cities around the country, housing people of all faiths, including Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
As of 1914, the population of the Palestinian land was about 690,000 people, 8 percent of whom were Jews. Fast forward to 1948, the population exceeded 1 million, with a percentage of 31.5 of them being Jews.
Jewish immigration to Palestine began way before 1948, it began as early as the 1930s, with over 225 thousand Jews arriving from various parts of the world between 1932 and 1939. With hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants flowing into Palestine, more than 318 thousand Jews had immigrated by 1947.
According to historical records, during the Nakba, Israeli soldiers took over 770 villages and destroyed 531 communities, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. In addition to 51 massacres committed by Israeli forces, more than 15,000 Palestinians were massacred.
The year 2023 has been considered the deadliest year for Palestinians since 1948. According to The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, more Palestinians have been killed in 2023 than in any other year.
According to the bureau's statistics, 22,404 Palestinians were killed, and 22,141 of them were brutally killed as Israel launched its brutal aggression on the Gaza Strip.
The latest numbers coming from Gaza show that so far more than 35,173 people have been killed, with more than half of them being children. Additionally, 79,061 people have been injured, most of them with severe and life-threatening injuries.
Through the years, Israeli forces have committed a number of massacres in a number of Palestinian villages and refugee camps. Starting as early as 1948, weeks before the Nakba, Zionist militias Irgun and Stern Gan tore through the village of Deir Yassin killing at least 107 Palestinians and expelling whoever left alive from their homes.
The Israeli aggression against Palestinians did not stop at the borders of Palestinian Lands. One of the massacres that Palestinians will always remember would be the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Lebanon in 1982. The Phalange militia invaded the Sabra and Shatila camp killing between 2,000-3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in a 43-hour killing spree.
The Israeli brutality did not stop there; the most recent onslaught on the Gaza Strip witnessed a series of nothing short of horrific murders, killing thousands of civilians and creating widespread destruction.
On October 17th, 2023, an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Baptist in Gaza killed at least 471 Palestinians, mostly women and their children, according to the Ministry of Health in the strip. Additionally, more than 300 people were injured, most of whom were Gazans taking shelter in the hospital after being forcibly removed from their homes.
76 years later, the Nakba did not only alter the course of events of the lives of those who were displaced from their homes back in 1948, but also changed the lives of the following generations who did not live through the Nakba, but remained waiting for the day where they would live to see their homeland.
Written by: Batool Darweesh
