Every
year on May 15, Palestinians worldwide commemorate the 1948 catastrophe (Nakba)
marked by ethnic cleansing and mass forced displacement of their people. Under
the British Mandate and with the complicity of colonial powers, over 800,000
Palestinians—out of a population of 1.4 million—were forcibly displaced from
nearly 1,300 towns and villages to the West Bank, Gaza, neighboring Arab
countries, and beyond. The occupation forces seized 774 localities, destroyed
531 of them, and committed more than 70 massacres, resulting in the deaths of
approximately 15,000 Palestinians. This marked the beginning of a new phase of
Palestinian suffering—defined by the denial of their right to return and the
consolidation of a colonial regime sustained by international support.
The
Nakba was not merely a historical event; it is an ongoing reality that persists
today through policies of displacement, settlement, and racial discrimination,
all aimed at uprooting Palestinians from their land and erasing their national
identity.
Forced displacement in West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem
Seventy-seven
years after the Nakba, forced displacement is no longer just a chapter in
history—it is a recurring reality that continues to thrust the Palestinian
tragedy into the present. The Israeli assault on Gaza, which began on October
7, 2023, marked a pivotal moment in the ongoing colonial strategy of
systematically depopulating the land and denying Palestinians their right of
return.
From
the earliest days of the war, Israeli political and military leaders made
explicit statements signaling their intent to forcibly displace Palestinians
from Gaza and turn mass displacement into a long-term policy. This agenda was
clearly reflected in calls by Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben
Gvir to revive settlements in Gaza—positioning it as a first step toward
sweeping demographic engineering. (1)
The
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
documented that Israeli forces issued 'mandatory evacuation' orders affecting
large areas of the Gaza Strip, without providing safe alternatives or legal
guarantees. The OHCHR determined that these orders do not meet the standards of
international humanitarian law—falling short in terms of transportation
conditions, civilian protection, and access to essential needs such as shelter,
food, and medical care. The Office further reported that civilians were
repeatedly forced to relocate within Gaza under constant and life-threatening
conditions for themselves and their families. (2)
In
the West Bank, a parallel policy of forced displacement is being systematically
implemented, particularly in Area C, which remains under full Israeli control.
Israeli authorities continue to demolish Palestinian homes and civilian
structures, seize land, and deny building permits. According to the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), over 1,000
Palestinian structures were demolished across 2023 and 2024, resulting in the
displacement of hundreds of families—most notably in the northern Jordan Valley
and Masafer Yatta—as part of ongoing efforts to transform these areas into
closed military zones. (3)
In
East Jerusalem, a systematic campaign of evictions is underway in several
neighborhoods, including Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Issawiya, and Beit Safafa.
Israeli authorities rely on manipulative legal mechanisms and settler
organizations that claim ownership of Palestinian properties in an effort to
replace the native population with settlers. International human rights
organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have
affirmed that these policies constitute a pattern of forced displacement
prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention and may amount to a war
crime—particularly given the lack of effective legal remedies available to
Palestinians in Israeli courts. (4)
Settlement expansion
In
2024, settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,
reached unprecedented levels—both in terms of constructing new settlements and
expanding existing ones. This expansion has been accompanied by a systematic
escalation in the demolition of Palestinian homes under the pretext of lacking
building permits—permits that Israeli authorities routinely deny. These actions
aim to depopulate Palestinian areas and replace the indigenous residents with
Israeli settlers.
The
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has stated that
Israel’s settlement policy, along with its associated practices of de facto
annexation and discriminatory legislation, represents a flagrant violation of
international law, as confirmed by the International Court of Justice in its
2004 advisory opinion on the separation wall. Turk further asserted that
Israel’s transfer of its civilian population into the occupied territories
constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law. He called for an
immediate and complete halt to all settlement activities, the evacuation of
settlers, and the accountability of those responsible for violations, whether
settlers or Israeli occupation forces. (5)
The
High Commissioner further emphasized that Israel must provide compensation for
the damages resulting from decades of illegal settlement activities. He
stressed that these policies not only violate Palestinians' right to
self-determination but also perpetuate a system of systemic racial
discrimination.
In a
statement issued on May 9, 2025, the Special Committee on the Israeli Practices
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories expressed "grave concern over the
accelerating pace of land confiscation and the entrenchment of a colonial
system aimed at achieving complete control over the land and its people."
The committee stated that the ongoing situation "could constitute a new
Nakba," warning that current policies involve systematic patterns of
arbitrary killing, forced disappearances, and ethnic cleansing, all of which
reinforce apartheid practices on the ground. (6)
The Right of Return Amid Current Challenges
Since
the Nakba of 1948, the right of return has been central to the Palestinian refugee
issue, representing one of the oldest and most unresolved political and
humanitarian crises in modern history. In the wake of military operations led
by Zionist forces, hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed, and their
inhabitants were forcibly displaced to neighboring areas, both within Palestine
and abroad. Despite the efforts to prevent their return, the United Nations
General Assembly adopted Resolution 194 (III) on December 11, 1948, which, in
its eleventh paragraph, affirmed the right of Palestinian refugees to return to
their homes and called for compensation for those who chose not to return. (7)
Over
the following decades, this right has been reaffirmed in numerous international
resolutions and binding human rights instruments, including:
- The Fourth
Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War (August 12, 1949), which, in Article 49, prohibits "forcible
transfer, whether individual or mass, of protected persons," and
forbids their deportation from occupied territories "for any
reason." Notably, Israel is a signatory to the Convention. (8)
- The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which enshrines in Article
13 "the right of every individual to leave any country, including his
own, and to return to it," and Article 17, which prohibits
"arbitrary deprivation of property." (9)
- The
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), which Israel
ratified on October 3, 1991, stipulates in Article 12, paragraph 4, that
"no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own
country." (10)
Despite
this clear legal framework, which affirms the binding nature of the right of
return, Israel persists in denying this right—not only by obstructing its
implementation in practice but also by continuing policies of forced
displacement, land confiscation, and settlement expansion, thus deepening the
entrenched colonial reality of expulsion and replacement.
Conclusions
Field
data and human rights reports confirm that the situation in the occupied
Palestinian territory—particularly in the Gaza Strip since October
2023—constitutes the largest wave of forced displacement since the Nakba of
1948. Over 1.9 million Palestinians have been internally displaced within Gaza
alone, in addition to thousands more uprooted in the West Bank as a result of
ongoing policies of demolition and land confiscation.
Israel
has systematically used siege and starvation as a method of warfare by
obstructing the entry of humanitarian aid and imposing severe restrictions on
food and medicine. This has resulted in documented famine conditions and the
deaths of numerous civilians, particularly children and the
elderly—constituting a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions and the
prohibition against using starvation of civilians as a method of combat.
It
has become increasingly evident that Israel employs an integrated system of
legal, military, and administrative mechanisms to advance its displacement
policies, particularly in Area "C” of the West Bank and in East Jerusalem.
Israeli courts are systematically utilized to legitimize eviction claims
brought by settler organizations against Palestinian residents, all within a
legal framework that lacks genuine safeguards and fails to provide effective
judicial protection for the affected population.
In
addition, the large-scale destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure has been
devastating. Estimates indicate that over 70% of homes and civilian
facilities—including hospitals, schools, and water and sanitation networks—have
been destroyed. This level of devastation signals a long-term humanitarian
catastrophe that threatens the basic foundations of life in the Strip.
Recommendations
In
the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, and in light of the ongoing crimes and
violations against the Palestinian people, the Palestinian Association for
Human Rights (Witness) calls for the following:
- Holding Israel accountable before
international courts, particularly the International Court of Justice and
the International Criminal Court, for crimes committed, including mass
killings, forced displacement, torture, and arbitrary detention.
- Urging
the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly to take immediate
action to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip, as it constitutes a war
crime and a violation of international humanitarian law, and to ensure the
immediate and unconditional access to humanitarian aid.
- Calling for a comprehensive halt to all
settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the
dismantling of illegal settlements, halting home demolitions, and halting
land confiscation.
- Pressuring
for the implementation of United Nations resolutions related to the
Palestinian cause, especially those pertaining to the right of Palestinian
refugees to return to their original towns and villages, in accordance
with Resolution 194, as an essential condition for achieving any just
settlement.
- Urging
host countries of Palestinian refugees, particularly Lebanon, to respect
the civil, economic, and social rights of Palestinians, and emphasizing
that the refusal of naturalization does not justify violations of these
fundamental rights, which are guaranteed under international human rights
law.
References
1.Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s calls to
"return to Gaza” and resume settlement activity were reported by multiple
sources, including The Times of Israel (2023).
2.OHCHR. (2023, December 13). Israel/OPT:
UN experts deplore large-scale forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.
United Nations Human Rights Office. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/12/israelopt-un-experts-deplore-large-scale-forced-displacement-palestinians
3.OCHA. (2024, January). West Bank
demolitions and displacement | January–December 2023. United Nations OCHA
OPT. https://www.ochaopt.org
4.Amnesty International. (2022,
February). Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel system of
domination and crime against humanity. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/5141/2022/en/
Human Rights Watch. (2021, April). A threshold
crossed: Israeli authorities and the crimes of apartheid and persecution. https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution
5.OHCHR. (2024, April 27). UN High
Commissioner: Israel’s settlement policies constitute war crimes and must end.
Statement by Volker Türk. https://www.ohchr.org
6.UN Special Committee to Investigate
Israeli Practices. (2025, May 9). Statement on the human rights situation in
the occupied Palestinian territory.
7.UN General Assembly. (1948, December
11). Resolution 194 (III): Palestine — Progress report of the United Nations
Mediator. https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/194(III)
8.UN General Assembly. (1948, December
11). Resolution 194 (III): Palestine — Progress report of the United Nations
Mediator. https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/194(III)
9.United Nations General Assembly.
(1948, December 10). Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 13
and 17. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
10. United
Nations, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 12(4),
adopted 16 December 1966, entered into force 23 March 1976. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-civil-and-political-rights