Palestinians fear a repeat of their 1948 mass expulsion in the wake of Trump’s remarks on Gaza

By JOSEPH KRAUSS

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinians volition people this twelvemonth the 77th day of their mass expulsion from what is present Israel, an lawsuit that is astatine the halfway of their nationalist struggle.

But successful galore ways, that acquisition pales successful examination to the calamity present faced successful the Gaza Strip — peculiarly arsenic President Donald Trump has suggested that displaced Palestinians successful Gaza beryllium permanently resettled extracurricular the war-torn territory and that the United States instrumentality “ownership” of the enclave.

Palestinians notation to their 1948 expulsion arsenic the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. Some 700,000 Palestinians — a bulk of the prewar colonisation — fled oregon were driven from their homes earlier and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli warfare that followed Israel’s establishment.

After the war, Israel refused to let them to instrumentality due to the fact that it would person resulted successful a Palestinian bulk wrong its borders. Instead, they became a seemingly imperishable exile assemblage that present numbers immoderate 6 million, with astir surviving successful slum-like municipality exile camps successful Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In Gaza, the refugees and their descendants marque up astir three-quarters of the population.

Israel’s rejection of what Palestinians accidental is their close of instrumentality to their 1948 homes has been a halfway grievance successful the struggle and was 1 of the thorniest issues successful bid talks that past collapsed 15 years ago. The exile camps person ever been the main bastions of Palestinian militancy.

Now, galore Palestinians fearfulness a repetition of their achy past connected an adjacent much cataclysmic scale.

All crossed Gaza, Palestinians successful caller days person been loading up cars and donkey carts oregon mounting retired connected ft to sojourn their destroyed homes aft a ceasefire successful the Israel-Hamas warfare took clasp Jan. 19. The images from respective rounds of wide evacuations passim the warfare — and their march backmost northbound connected ft — are strikingly akin to black-and-white photographs from 1948.

Mustafa al-Gazzar, successful his 80s, recalled successful 2024 his family’s monthslong formation from their colony successful what is present cardinal Israel to the confederate metropolis of Rafah, erstwhile helium was 5. At 1 constituent they were bombed from the air, astatine another, they dug holes nether a histrion to slumber successful for warmth.

Al-Gazzar, present a great-grandfather, was forced to fly again successful the war, this clip to a structure successful Muwasi, a barren coastal country wherever immoderate 450,000 Palestinians unrecorded successful a squalid camp. He said past the conditions are worse than successful 1948, erstwhile the U.N. bureau for Palestinian refugees was capable to regularly supply nutrient and different essentials.

“My anticipation successful 1948 was to return, but my anticipation contiguous is to survive,” helium said.

The warfare successful Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 onslaught into Israel, has killed implicit 47,000 Palestinians, according to section wellness officials, making it by acold the deadliest circular of warring successful the past of the conflict. The archetypal Hamas onslaught killed immoderate 1,200 Israelis.

The warfare has forced immoderate 1.7 cardinal Palestinians — astir 3 quarters of the territory’s colonisation — to fly their homes, often aggregate times. That is good implicit doubly the fig that fled earlier and during the 1948 war.

Israel has sealed its border. Egypt has lone allowed a tiny fig of Palestinians to leave, successful portion due to the fact that it fears a wide influx of Palestinians could make different semipermanent exile crisis.

The planetary assemblage is powerfully opposed to immoderate wide expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza — an thought embraced by far-right members of the Israeli government, who notation to it arsenic “voluntary emigration.”

Israel has agelong called for the refugees of 1948 to beryllium absorbed into big countries, saying that calls for their instrumentality are unrealistic and would endanger its beingness arsenic a Jewish-majority state. It points to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries during the turmoil pursuing its establishment, though fewer of them privation to return.

Even if Palestinians are not expelled from Gaza en masse, galore fearfulness that they volition ne'er beryllium capable to instrumentality to their homes oregon that the demolition wreaked connected the territory volition marque it intolerable to unrecorded there. One U.N. estimation said it would instrumentality until 2040 to rebuild destroyed homes.

The Jewish militias successful the 1948 warfare with the armies of neighboring Arab nations were chiefly equipped with lighter weapons similar rifles, instrumentality guns and mortars. Hundreds of depopulated Palestinian villages were demolished aft the war, portion Israelis moved into Palestinian homes successful Jerusalem, Jaffa and different cities.

In Gaza, Israel has unleashed one of the deadliest and astir destructive subject campaigns successful caller history, astatine times dropping 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs connected dense, residential areas. Entire neighborhoods person been reduced to wastelands of rubble and plowed-up roads, galore littered with unexploded bombs.

Yara Asi, a Palestinian adjunct prof astatine the University of Central Florida who has done research connected the harm to civilian infrastructure successful the war, says it’s “extremely difficult” to ideate the benignant of planetary effort that would beryllium indispensable to rebuild Gaza.

Even earlier the war, galore Palestinians spoke of an ongoing Nakba, successful which Israel gradually forces them retired of Gaza, the West Bank and eastbound Jerusalem, territories it captured during the 1967 warfare that the Palestinians privation for a aboriginal state. They constituent to home demolitions, settlement construction and different discriminatory policies that agelong predate the war, and which large rights groups accidental amount to apartheid, allegations Israel denies.

Asi and others fearfulness that if different genuine Nakba occurs, it volition beryllium successful the signifier of a gradual departure.

“It won’t beryllium called forcible displacement successful immoderate cases. It volition beryllium called emigration, it volition beryllium called thing else,” Asi said.

“But successful essence, it is radical who privation to stay, who person done everything successful their powerfulness to enactment for generations successful intolerable conditions, yet reaching a constituent wherever beingness is conscionable not livable.”

Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa and Mohammad Jahjouh successful Rafah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

The Associated Press is republishing this communicative from May 14, 2024, to update with the ceasefire and President Donald Trump’s comments astir the Gaza Strip.

Originally Published: February 5, 2025 astatine 12:37 PM EST