Lina Altawell
15 May 2026•Update: 15 May 2026
Palestinians on Friday marked the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands were driven from their cities, towns and villages in most of historic Palestine in 1948.
Palestinians use the term Nakba, or catastrophe in Arabic, to refer to the displacement of about 800,000 Palestinians in 1948 as Israel was established on Palestinian land.
Every year, Palestinians mark the anniversary with marches, exhibitions and public events in the Palestinian territories and around the world to assert their rights, foremost the right of return for millions of refugees.
This year’s events were held under the slogan “We will not leave. Our roots are deeper than your destruction,” with marches, rallies and public gatherings in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, refugee camps and diaspora communities.
In Ramallah, Palestinians held a central march and public rally with broad official and popular participation, raising Palestinian flags, black banners and symbolic keys of return.
Similar events were held in Palestinian refugee camps in Arab and foreign countries, where participants carried signs bearing the names of Palestinian villages and cities depopulated in 1948, reaffirming the right of return and rejecting displacement.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Israeli occupiers seized 774 Palestinian villages and cities in 1948, completely destroyed 531 of them and committed more than 70 massacres that killed over 15,000 Palestinians.
The bureau said the number of Palestinians worldwide reached about 15.49 million by the end of 2025, more than half of them living outside historic Palestine, including 6.82 million in Arab countries.
The population of the State of Palestine stands at about 5.56 million, including 3.43 million in the West Bank and 2.13 million in the Gaza Strip, according to the bureau.
The bureau said Gaza has seen a sharp and unprecedented population decline of about 254,000 people since Israel’s war began in October 2023, citing killings, displacement and worsening living conditions.
This year’s anniversary comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues and military operations escalate in the West Bank, amid Palestinian warnings of renewed displacement attempts targeting Palestinians.
Since October 2023, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 72,000 Palestinians and wounded over 172,000 others, while causing massive destruction to homes, infrastructure, and vital facilities, in addition to a severe humanitarian crisis driven by siege conditions and shortages of food, water, and medicine.
