Israeli Escalation In Gaza, West Bank ‘Continuation Of Nakba’: Palestinian Official

RAMALLAH, May 14 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- Israel’s two-year war on Gaza and illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank represent a continuation of the Nakba, a senior Palestinian official said Thursday, as Palestinians mark the 78th anniversary of Israel’s creation on the rubble of their villages, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.

Ahmad Abu Holi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO)’s Executive Committee, told Anadolu that Palestinians mark the anniversary this year “amid an ongoing Nakba with renewed tools.”

Abu Holi, who heads the PLO’s Department of Refugee Affairs, said the current escalation “is not a separate event, but a direct extension of a non-stop project aimed at uprooting and displacing Palestinians.”

“What is happening in Gaza is a genocidal war aimed at destroying the Palestinian people,” he said. “Illegal settlement expansion, settler attacks and restrictions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem also show that we are still at the heart of the Nakba.”

Palestinians use the term Nakba, or catastrophe in Arabic, to refer to the displacement of about 800,000 Palestinians in 1948 as Israel was established on Palestinian land.

According to official figures, more than 154,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, while about 1 million Palestinians have been arrested since 1967.

Palestinians mark the anniversary every year through activities in the Palestinian territories and the diaspora to reaffirm their commitment to the right of return.

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU