Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’

Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’
A general view of the destruction in the Gaza Strip following Israel’s war. (AFP)
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Updated 05 February 2025
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Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’

Palestinians fear repeat of ‘Nakba’
  • Israel’s war against Hamas has forced 1.7m Gazans to flee homes, often multiple times

JERUSALEM: Palestinians will mark this year the 77th anniversary of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle.

But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now faced in the Gaza Strip — particularly as President Donald Trump has suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and that the US take “ownership” of the enclave.

Palestinians refer to their 1948 expulsion as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. Some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the prewar population — fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel’s establishment.

After the war, Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. 

Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel’s rejection of what Palestinians say is their right of return to their 1948 homes has been a core grievance in the conflict and was one of the thorniest issues in peace talks that last collapsed 15 years ago. The refugee camps have always been the main bastions of Palestinian militancy.

Now, many Palestinians fear a repeat of their painful history on an even more cataclysmic scale.

All across Gaza, Palestinians in recent days have been loading up cars and donkey carts or setting out on foot to visit their destroyed homes after a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war took hold Jan. 19. The images from several rounds of mass evacuations throughout the war — and their march back north on foot — are strikingly similar to black-and-white photographs from 1948.

Mustafa Al-Gazzar, in his 80s, recalled in 2024 his family’s monthslong flight from their village in what is now central Israel to the southern city of Rafah, when he was 5. At one point they were bombed from the air, at another, they dug holes under a tree to sleep in for warmth.

Al-Gazzar, now a great-grandfather, was forced to flee again in the war, this time to a tent in Muwasi, a barren coastal area where some 450,000 Palestinians live in a squalid camp. 

He said then the conditions are worse than in 1948, when the UN agency for Palestinian refugees was able to regularly provide food and other essentials.

The war in Gaza has forced some 1.7 million Palestinians — around three quarters of the territory’s population — to flee their homes, often multiple times. That is well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war.

Israel has sealed its border. Egypt has only allowed a small number of Palestinians to leave, in part because it fears a mass influx of Palestinians could generate another long-term refugee crisis.

Israel has long called for the refugees of 1948 to be absorbed into host countries, saying that calls for their return are unrealistic and would endanger its existence as a Jewish-majority state. It points to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries during the turmoil following its establishment, though few of them want to return.

Even if Palestinians are not expelled from Gaza en masse, many fear that they will never be able to return to their homes or that the destruction wreaked on the territory will make it impossible to live there. One UN estimate said it would take until 2040 to rebuild destroyed homes.

Yara Asi, a Palestinian professor at the University of Central Florida, says it’s “extremely difficult” to imagine the kind of international effort that would be necessary to rebuild Gaza.


Ukraine would back ceasefire on energy attacks, Zelensky says

Ukraine would back ceasefire on energy attacks, Zelensky says
Updated 11 sec ago
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Ukraine would back ceasefire on energy attacks, Zelensky says

Ukraine would back ceasefire on energy attacks, Zelensky says
“Our side (would) support this,” Zelensky told reporters
Zelensky said he would back any proposal that led to a “stable and just peace“

KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday Ukraine would support a US proposal to stop its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, but warned that Russia was trying to delay the US-led negotiations and weaken Kyiv by making new demands.
The White House said earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a month-long halt on strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure, as the two leaders spoke by phone on Tuesday.
“Our side (would) support this,” Zelensky told reporters during a quickly-organized online briefing, when asked about the idea of a moratorium on energy strikes.
Ukraine has used long-range combat drones to pound Russian oil infrastructure such as refineries in an effort to hurt its much larger foe, which has rained down missiles and drones far behind the front lines in Ukraine since the February 2022 full-scale invasion.
In particular, Russian strikes have hammered Ukrainian power stations, causing large-scale blackouts, and more recently also natural gas production sites.
Zelensky said he would back any proposal that led to a “stable and just peace.”
Moscow stopped short of giving Washington the full unconditional 30-day ceasefire it had sought.
Zelensky said he believed Russia was clearly opposed to the proposal, which Kyiv agreed to in principle at last week’s talks with US officials in Jeddah.
Zelensky told reporters that Russia had launched more than 1,300 guided bombs, eight missiles and nearly 600 long-range strike drones at Ukraine since the talks in Saudi Arabia.
Ukraine itself proposed the idea of ceasefire on energy infrastructure during the talks, he added.
“This was part of our proposal for the sky and for the sea. With the mediation of the American side, if they are the guarantors of control over the implementation of this ceasefire,” he said.

PHONE CALL DIPLOMACY
Zelensky said after the Putin-Trump phone call he spoke by telephone with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, both key European allies.
“I think it will be right that we will have a conversation with President Trump and we will know in detail what the Russians offered the Americans or what the Americans offered the Russians,” he said.
He also told reporters that he hoped Kyiv’s partners would not cut vital military assistance for Ukraine.
“We are in constant communication. I am confident that there will be no betrayal from our partners and that the assistance will continue,” he said.
He made the remark when asked about an earlier comment by Putin, who emphasized that any resolution of the conflict would require an end to all military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine.
Zelensky said the demand by Putin, as well as another seeking to curtail Ukraine’s campaign to draft civilians into the armed forces, looked aimed at weakening Ukraine.

Israel is ramping up annexation of West Bank, UN rights chief says

Israel is ramping up annexation of West Bank, UN rights chief says
Updated 2 min 36 sec ago
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Israel is ramping up annexation of West Bank, UN rights chief says

Israel is ramping up annexation of West Bank, UN rights chief says
  • ‘The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime’

GENEVA: Israel has expanded and consolidated settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of the steady integration of these territories into the State of Israel, in breach of international law, the UN human rights office said in a report on Tuesday.

The report, based on research between Nov. 1, 2023, and Oct. 31, 2024, said there had been a “significant” expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and cited reports by Israeli NGOs of tens of thousands of planned housing units in new or existing settlements.

The findings will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council this month and come amid growing fears of annexation among Palestinians, as US policy shifts under President Donald Trump and new settler outposts are put down in areas of the West Bank seen as part of a future Palestinian state.

“The transfer by Israel of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies amounts to a war crime,” UN High Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the report, urging the international community to take meaningful action.

“Israel must immediately and completely cease all settlement activities and evacuate all settlers, stop the forcible transfer of the Palestinian population, and prevent and punish attacks by its security forces and settlers,” he said.

Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in 1967. Most countries consider Israel’s settlements on territory seized in war to be illegal. 

Israel’s military says it is conducting counter-terrorism operations in the West Bank and targeting suspected militants.

Plans for the further provision of Israeli government services in these settlements “further institutionalize(s) long-standing patterns of systematic discrimination, segregation, oppression, domination, violence and other inhumane acts against the Palestinian people,” the report said.


War monitor says Israel strikes central Syria military site

War monitor says Israel strikes central Syria military site
Updated 16 min 53 sec ago
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War monitor says Israel strikes central Syria military site

War monitor says Israel strikes central Syria military site
  • According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “Israeli air strikes targeted a missile battalion” near Homs city
  • Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites since December

BEIRUT: A Syrian Arab Republic war monitor said Israeli jets struck a military site in central Syria on Tuesday, the latest such attack in recent days.
According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, “Israeli air strikes targeted a missile battalion” near Homs city, reporting explosions in the area with no immediate word of casualties.
Israel has launched hundreds of strikes on military sites in Syria since the December overthrow of president Bashar Assad, saying it was acting to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of the new authorities whom it considers jihadists.
On Monday Israel struck the area of the southern city of Daraa, killing three civilians according to the authorities.
Last week, an Israeli air strike on Damascus hit a “command center” of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, the military said. The Observatory reported one fatality.
In addition to the air strikes, since Assad’s fall, Israel has also deployed troops to a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the strategic Golan Heights and called for the complete demilitarization of southern Syria, near its territory.


Presidents of Congo and Rwanda meet in Qatar to discuss insurgency in eastern Congo

Presidents of Congo and Rwanda meet in Qatar to discuss insurgency in eastern Congo
Updated 18 March 2025
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Presidents of Congo and Rwanda meet in Qatar to discuss insurgency in eastern Congo

Presidents of Congo and Rwanda meet in Qatar to discuss insurgency in eastern Congo
  • Congo and Rwanda reaffirmed their commitment to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire on Tuesday
  • Peace talks between the two countries were unexpectedly canceled in December

DAKAR: The presidents of Congo and neighboring Rwanda met Tuesday in Qatar for their first direct talks since Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized two major cities in mineral-rich eastern Congo earlier this year, the three governments said.
The meeting between Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame to discuss the insurgency was mediated by Qatar, the three governments said in a joint statement.
The summit came as a previous attempt to bring Congo’s government and M23 leaders together for ceasefire negotiations on Tuesday failed. The rebels pulled out Monday after the European Union announced sanctions on rebel leaders.
Congo and Rwanda reaffirmed their commitment to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire during the meeting in Qatar on Tuesday.
Peace talks between Congo and Rwanda were unexpectedly canceled in December after Rwanda made the signing of a peace agreement conditional on a direct dialogue between Congo and the M23 rebels, which Congo refused at the time.
The conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January when the Rwanda-backed rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma, followed by Bukavu in February.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.
The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to UN experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the east.
The UN Human Rights Council last month launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to “summary executions” by both sides.


Families urge Tunisia to release detained pro-migrant activists

Families urge Tunisia to release detained pro-migrant activists
Updated 18 March 2025
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Families urge Tunisia to release detained pro-migrant activists

Families urge Tunisia to release detained pro-migrant activists
  • Romdhane Ben Amor, the head of FTDES, an NGO, said the 10 detainees’ organizations “were engaged in humanitarian work, not political advocacy“
  • The authorities, however, “criminalized their actions“

TUNIS: The families of detained Tunisian pro-migrant and anti-racism activists, imprisoned since May, launched an appeal on Tuesday for their release.
Romdhane Ben Amor, the head of FTDES, an NGO, said the 10 detainees’ organizations “were engaged in humanitarian work, not political advocacy.”
The authorities, however, “criminalized their actions,” he said at a press conference.
The aim, Ben Amor said, was to “further weaken migrants and refugees and to push them to accept ‘voluntary returns’ organized by the (UN’s) International Organization for Migration.”
Tunisia is a major transit country for African migrants hoping to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in search of economic opportunities and a better life.
In 2023, Tunisian president Kais Saied denounced what he called “hordes of sub-Saharan migrants” who threatened to “change the country’s demographic composition.”
That was followed by a crackdown on migrants and last year’s arrest of activists.
Among those at the press conference was Emna Riahi, the mother of Sherifa Riahi, the former head of Terre d’Asile Tunisie.
She demanded that her daughter, a parent of two young children, be released and have a trial after charges against her of money laundering and terrorism were dropped.
Also present were the daughters of Mustapha Djemali, the 80-year-old founder of the Tunisian Council for Refugees and former North Africa chief for the UN’s refugee agency.
Yusra and Emna Djemali said their father had lost 35 kilogrammes (77 pounds) while in prison and had been denied medication “for four or five months.”
All these activists “are imprisoned to make it seem as though the president’s racist rhetoric was based on real facts,” said Ben Amor, lamenting what he called the “complicit silence” of the European Union and international organizations.