On May 15, 2026, the Palestinians commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, at a time when policies of displacement, forced expulsion, settler colonialism, and mass killing against Palestinians continue on an unprecedented scale since 1948. While the first Nakba constituted a crime of mass displacement, Palestinians today are facing a renewed Nakba manifested in a genocidal war and widespread destruction targeting the entirety of Palestinian existence in the occupied Palestinian territories, particularly in Gaza. The current reality confirms that the Nakba was not merely a historical event that ended in 1948, but an ongoing colonial policy based on population replacement, land control, and the erasure of Palestinian national identity through an integrated system of crimes.
Since October 2023, residents of the Gaza Strip have been subjected to policies of mass killing, starvation, siege, large-scale destruction, and forced displacement, alongside the targeting of homes, hospitals, schools, shelters, and infrastructure, as well as the obstruction of humanitarian aid, in an attempt to forcibly reshape the demographic and geographic reality of the Strip. These policies have resulted in the displacement of nearly (2 million) Palestinians within Gaza, while the number of Palestinians worldwide reached approximately 15.5 million by mid-2025, with more than half living outside historic Palestine as a result of ongoing displacement and uprooting policies since the Nakba[1].
(W.Z.), an elderly displaced woman living in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, stated:
“I live with my children and grandchildren in a displacement camp. I lived through the Palestinian Nakba as a child when my family fled our home in Beit Daras. I still remember the sounds of exploding barrels, sitting in the streets for days, and moving from one place to another. I was once a refugee, and now I am displaced again, with no home or place left for me to live. I have been displaced dozens of times, my daughter and her children were killed, and experienced forced displacement twice: during the Nakba and now in this war”.
As of May 12, 2026, Israel has killed at least 72,742; wounded more than172,565, in addition to thousands still missing under the rubble or in areas inaccessible due to Israeli restrictions. Official information from the Palestinian Ministry of Health indicates that the majority of victims are children and women, amid the near-total collapse of the healthcare system and the continued targeting of hospitals, medical personnels, and ambulances, further increasing the death toll[2].
Israeli occupation forces have inflicted widespread and comprehensive destruction on Gazas infrastructure and the basic necessities of life. Data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics showed that the genocidal war damaged more than 198,000 buildings in the Strip, including over 102,000 totally destroyed[3]. Entire residential neighborhoods and vital facilities were devastated, including schools, universities, hospitals, places of worship, water and electricity networks, and sewage systems, resulting in an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and rendering Gaza uninhabitable amid the ongoing siege and restrictions on humanitarian and reconstruction aid.
As part of imposing facts on the ground and seeking control over Gaza and the displacement of its population, Israeli occupation authorities have intensified land confiscation and direct military control in recent months through the establishment of what is known as the Yellow Line, which separates military-controlled zones from areas where Palestinians are allowed to remain. This zone extends across approximately 53% of the total area of the Strip, accompanied by widespread destruction of homes and facilities behind it. The occupation then gradually expanded westward by imposing the Orange Line, a new military boundary that annexed an additional 11% of the total area of the Strip. As a result, areas effectively subjected to Israeli military or fire control now cover approximately 65% of the total area of the Strip, as part of a process of geographic reengineering and the reduction of space available for civilian life.
(N.H.), a resident of Al-Qarara east of Khan Younis, stated:
“We returned to our home after two years of displacement in Rafah, Al-Mawasi, and Deir al-Balah following the ceasefire announcement. We live near the Yellow Line, and although the area is dangerous, the suffering during displacement pushed us to stay near our destroyed homes and our land. Every day we hear bulldozing, demolition of remaining houses, and gunfire. Sometimes the army moves near our homes beyond the Yellow Line, forcing us to remain inside for a full day or two. A few days ago, Israeli forces began placing large orange concrete blocks near us, which terrified us. We decided to flee once again to Al-Mawasi out of fear that they would come closer and target us”.
In the occupied West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, Israeli occupation forces continue implementing systematic policies of de facto annexation, settlement expansion, and land seizure through confiscating Palestinian property, demolishing homes and facilities, forcibly displacing communities, constructing bypass roads, expanding settlement outposts, and imposing military checkpoints and restrictions that isolate Palestinian cities and villages and severely restrict freedom of movement. This is accompanied by a dangerous escalation in attacks by armed settlers, including assaults on civilians, arson attacks on homes, vehicles, and farms, uprooting trees, seizing land under military protection, repeated military raids, killings, and arbitrary arrests.
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns the continued failure of the international community to compel the occupation, to comply with international law and warns against the continuation of brutal crimes that have produced a second and ongoing Nakba, the price of which is being paid by children, women, and civilians. While expressing solidarity with Palestinian victims and their families, the Center recalls that the International Court of Justice affirmed in its advisory opinion issued in July 2024 the illegality of the Israeli presence in the occupied Palestinian territories and called for ending the occupation, halting settlement expansion and annexation, and refraining from recognizing or supporting the illegal situation arising from it.
Accordingly, the Center calls upon all countries and every person of conscience to take urgent action to stop the crime of genocide, end the siege, starvation, and forced displacement, provide immediate humanitarian aid to civilians, hold perpetrators of Israeli crimes accountable, compensate victims and ensure justice and reparations, end the illegal occupation, halt settlement expansion and land confiscation, guarantee the protection of civilians, and secure the Palestinians’ right to return and self-determination in accordance with international law and United Nations resolutions.
The Center stresses that the Palestinians’ right to self-determination is an inalienable right guaranteed under international law, one that cannot be extinguished by the passage of time or undermined by policies of genocide and demographic engineering imposed by Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip.
[1] Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics
