Palestinians mark 76th anniversary of Nakba amid ongoing conflict with Israel

As the Israel-Palestine conflict entered its 222nd day on Wednesday, Palestinians marked the 76th anniversary of Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe), the exodus of Palestinians after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, thousands of Palestinians gathered to commemorate the Palestinian victims of 76 years ago and protest against the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza that have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in the enclave.

Protesters waved Palestinian flags, held portraits of Palestinians who were expelled from their homes in 1948, displayed pictures of refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, and carried banners bearing slogans including "The Nakba is recurring in Gaza now."

Several Palestinian faction leaders and members of the Executive Committees of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Central Committee of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) also attended the rally in Ramallah.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 35,233, health authorities in the Palestinian enclave said in a press statement on Wednesday.

Mahmoud Al-Aloul, a senior Fatah official, said more than 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza have been forced to leave their homes since the outbreak of the ongoing conflict, labeling it a "perhaps far more severe Nakba" compared to that of 1948.

He also accused the U.S. administration of being complicit in Israel's "crimes" in Gaza as it supplied weapons to Israel and vetoed UN resolutions that called for a ceasefire and a full UN membership for Palestine.

For his part, Ahmed Abu Holi, the head of the refugee affairs department of the PLO, stressed the essential role of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and denounced the U.S. and the West at large for suspending UNRWA funding.

In January, Israeli officials claimed that UNRWA personnel took part in the October 7 Hamas attack, which set off the current conflict in Gaza. The allegations remain unverified but prompted the U.S. and many other Western donors to halt the agency's funding.

Australia, Canada, Germany and several other countries have resumed their funding, whereas the U.S. and Britain continue to hold back their funds.

"Our people need the UNRWA to continue its work in the Gaza Strip because it is the only institution capable of working there," Abu Holi told Xinhua.

In Gaza, locals said there is no need to mark the Nakba anniversary because they are already living in one.

Mohammed al-Maqadma, a 58-year-old resident of Jabalia refugee camp, said that his parents, survivors of the Nakba 76 years ago, were killed in the recent Israeli strikes on Gaza.

"For the rest of their lives, my parents could not stop talking about their ordeal during Nakba. Now, for how many years will I speak about the new Nakba to our next generations?" al-Maqadma lamented.

Post-war plan

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday that he would oppose the establishment of Israel's rule in the post-war Gaza Strip.

Speaking in a televised press briefing, Gallant urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian or military control over the Gaza Strip, adding that a governing alternative to Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian resistance movement that runs the enclave, must be named by Netanyahu "immediately."

Gallant said that soon after the beginning of the Israeli conflict with Hamas in October last year, he had tried to promote a plan for a new Palestinian administration unaffiliated with Hamas but "received no response" in cabinet meetings.

In response, Netanyahu said in a statement that "as long as Hamas remains, no other party will run Gaza, certainly not the Palestinian Authority." He did not address the issue of a possible Israeli rule in the Palestinian enclave.

(With input from agencies)