Palestinian children wrote the names of the villages and cities of their ancestors that were destroyed by Zionist forces in 1947-48. (Photo: via Social Media)
May 15, 1948, marks the day of the Nakba (‘the Catastrophe’) when over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes by invading Zionist forces.
Seventy years on, more than 5.5 million refugees scattered all over the Middle East and the world are still waiting to exercise their internationally recognized right to return.
These are some of the stories Palestinian refugees shared by using several hashtags on social media: #OurNakba #Nakba2018 #Nakba70 #NeverForget #MyNakbaStory
Haj Abdul Qader al-Lahham, Beit Atab
Beit Atab was a Palestinian village in the subdistrict of Jerusalem.
After the military assault by Israeli forces in 1948, it was demolished and depopulated.
Its residents were forced to flee to the refugee camps in the West Bank.
Haj Abdul Qader al-Lahham, born in 1921, still holds the key to his house in his destroyed village of Beit Atab in the occupied Jerusalem district.#We_Will_back
Al-Lydd was a Palestinian village in the district of Al-Ramla.
Soon after the city’s occupation, in 1948, the Jewish forces committed their biggest massacre in Palestine: 426 men, women and children were murdered. 176 of them were killed in Dahmash mosque.
Iqrit was a Palestinian Christian village, in the district of Acre, which was mostly destroyed in 1948, with the exception of the village church.
Its residents were forced to flee by Jewish troops: some of the refugees were moved to Lebanon, to al-Rashedyah refugee camp, and the rest were transferred to al-Rama, 20 km South.
Beersheba was founded by the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. This small, modern city was home to merchants from Gaza and Hebron, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Druze, Bedouin, and others.
It was conquered by Israel in October 1948 with the use of aerial bombardment and its residents were expelled.
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