Palestinians mark Nakba Day, and ask what's next as Gaza becomes 'uninhabitable' amid war

Palestinians across the world mark Nakba Day on Wednesday, an event commemorating the mass expulsion from their homes during the conflict that created the State of Israel in 1948.

This year, Palestinian Americans say they are remembering the Nakba, meaning “catastrophe,” with sorrow and fear as they watch events unfold in Gaza. Images of Palestinians fleeing on foot, with whatever they can carry, or huddled in tents in makeshift refugee camps, evoke painful memories of the past.

The turmoil took place after the 1947 United Nations vote to partition Palestine for Jews and Arabs. The movement for a Jewish state went back decades and gained international support after the Holocaust, as persecuted Jews sought refuge from antisemitism and a national home. In the ensuing conflict, some 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes.

New Jersey is home to large Jewish and Palestinian populations, many of whom have close ties to the region. Amjad Abukwaik, a Verona resident, said his family fled fighting in 1948 "assuming they would come back the next day." As refugees, they settled in Ramallah in the West Bank, in Jordan and in Gaza, where he was born.

The situation for Palestinians today is far more dire, Abukwaik said.

“The level of destruction, the level of killing, it’s just so much worse now,” he said. “Even [wars in] ‘48 or ‘67 were a few days long. This has been going on for seven, almost eight months now.”

Gazans remain in their densely populated land that the United Nations now calls “uninhabitable” due to widespread destruction in the war. Foreign powers, including Israel, the United States and Arab nations, debate what postwar Gaza should look like.

“We are hoping Gaza and Palestine will always be there because it is our homeland and where we are raised,” said Enas Ghannam, a Gaza resident who was visiting the United States for the Palestine Writes Literature Festival when war broke out. She is staying with a relative in New Jersey.

What is next for Israel and Gaza?

On Tuesday, Israel marked Independence Day with toned-down celebrations to mark its founding, also in the shadow of the war with Hamas.

Israel does not want Hamas to return to power after its attack on Oct. 7, which killed 1,200 Israelis, with another 250 taken hostage. The government said the goal of its ongoing military campaign in Gaza is to eliminate Hamas, which it views as a threat to Israel. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and others.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed in February a plan for Israel to keep security control over Palestinian areas after the war and make reconstruction dependent on demilitarization, Reuters reported. But some far-right leaders in Israel are calling for Jews to resettle Gaza.

"First, we must return to Gaza now! We are coming home to the Holy Land! And second, we must encourage emigration. Encourage the voluntary emigration of the residents of Gaza. It is moral," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said at a far-right Independence Day march, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Last week, President Joe Biden told CNN that he was working with Arab states that are prepared to rebuild Gaza and help with the transition to a two-state solution. Netanyahu has opposed a two-state solution.

The international discussions over the fate of Gaza are troubling to Palestinians, who say they should be the ones to decide their future.

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People are mourning

Abukwaik struggled to talk about the future, consumed by the crisis still gripping Gaza. More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, with thousands more believed buried under rubble, including 40 of his family members. Three were killed Saturday by a missile strike following Israeli evacuation orders and fleeing Rafah, the southern city now under attack, he said.

“People are bleeding,” he said. “People are starving. People cannot even find gauze. The question is, will Gaza be left? Will there be people in Gaza to talk to about this?”

In Israel, people continue to mourn for the hostages who remain in Hamas custody, pleading and rallying for their safe release. Of 252 people abducted on Oct. 7, 128 remain in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. At least 36 of them have been declared dead, Reuters reported.

Israel was founded as a national home for Jews, 6 million of whom were killed during the Holocaust. But the Oct. 7 attack shook their sense of safety.

Any postwar planning must include discussion about long-term resolutions for the region, said Sa'ed Atshan, associate professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology at Swarthmore College.

"We have to imagine a better tomorrow, that violence can end, that freedom and justice and equality can arrive and we have to plan how to get there," Atshan said. For Gaza, he added, "there has to be a connection to historic Palestine and the West Bank and it has to be part of a broader and long term solution.”

Gaza is 'uninhabitable'

Gaza is growing "uninhabitable" amid bombings that have destroyed or damaged most homes, schools, health care facilities and infrastructure, say UN experts.

About 100,000 Gazans have crossed into Egypt, but Egypt and Jordan have said they will not accept Gazan refugees. They cite the potential impact on society and economy, but also maintain that they do not want to be complicit in Gazan's permanent expulsion from their land.

“We just want peace,” said Ghannam, the Gazan who is visiting New Jersey. “We want our children to live in a situation where they don’t have to be afraid, where they can look for a better future, not in a situation where they are waking up to explosions or under rubble and not knowing if they will see their loved ones."

Ghannam, who was project manager for We Are Not Numbers, a nonprofit project in the Gaza Strip that tells the stories behind the numbers of Palestinians in the news and advocates for their human rights, will speak at the Palestinian American Community Center in Clifton for a Nakba Day documentary screening and panel discussion. Palestinians do not view the Nakba as a one-time event 76 years ago, she stressed.

“The Nakba has happened every day since 1948,” she said. “We have been living it over and over again. It’s like we have been living in the shadow of the first Nakba.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: On Nakba Day, Palestine asks: What will happen to Gaza amid war?