Palestinians in Gaza mark anniversary of 1948 mass expulsion

Some say an even greater catastrophe is happening now, ‘because our displacement has happened multiple times’

Blink and you might miss the few stone walls that are all that is left of the village that Yusuf Abu Hamam’s family was forced to flee when he was an infant in 1948.

The village, al-Joura, was demolished by the Israeli military at the time. It has since vanished under neighbourhoods of the southern Israeli city of Ashqelon and the grounds of a national park.

The neighbourhood where Abu Hamam’s family ended up, and where he spent most of his life, now lies also largely in ruins.

Buildings in the Shati Camp in the northern Gaza Strip have been razed and wrecked by Israeli bombardment and demolitions during the past 2.5 years of war.

On Friday, Abu Hamam and millions of Palestinians mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for ‘catastrophe’, referring to the mass expulsion and flight of some 750,000 Palestinians from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

It is the third commemoration of the Nakba since the war in Gaza began.