(15 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramallah, West Bank – 15 May 2024
1. Various of Palestinians gathering, some carrying Palestinian and black flags while others make the victory sign, UPSOUND of air raid siren
2. Palestinians carrying big black flag at event marking the 76th year of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, in what Palestinians refer to as as the Nakba
3. Various of Palestinians gathering to mark the day
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Hisham Abu Rayan, Palestinian activist from Ramallah:
"This is an ongoing Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) since more than 76 years ago, but the response to this Nakba is through resistance, and the men of God in Gaza, who went ahead on Oct. 7 in order to end this Nakba and this suffering – for the sake of Jerusalem, for the sake of the prisoners, for the sake of Palestine."
6. Protesters
7. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Father Abdullah Yulio, parish priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic church in Ramallah:
"We are still in an ongoing Nakba, and what is happening in Gaza and currently across the land of Palestine as a whole serves as evidence to everyone that the Palestinian Nakba is ongoing and has been ongoing since 1948."
8. Various of Palestinians rallying, some carrying Palestinian and black flags
STORYLINE:
Palestinians have started gathering across the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to mark the anniversary of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel.
Palestinians refer to it 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.
More than twice that number have been displaced within Gaza since the start of the latest war, which was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel.
U.N. agencies say 550,000 people, nearly a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, have been newly displaced in just the last week, as Israeli forces have pushed into the southern city of Rafah, along the border with Egypt, and reinvaded parts of northern Gaza.
"What is happening in Gaza and currently across the land of Palestine as a whole serves as evidence to everyone that the Palestinian Nakba is ongoing," said Father Abdullah Yulio, the parish priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic church in Ramallah.
The main event marking Nakba Day on Wednesday was held in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority is headquartered.
The event is at the core of the Palestinians’ national struggle.
But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now unfolding in Gaza.
The latest war began with Hamas’ rampage across southern Israel, through some of the same areas where Palestinians fled from their villages 75 years earlier.
Palestinian militants killed some 1.200 people that day, mostly civilians, and took another 250 hostage.
Israel responded with one of the heaviest military onslaughts in recent history, obliterating entire neighborhoods in Gaza and forcing some 80% of the population to flee their homes.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says over 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants in its count.
The U.N. says there is widespread hunger and that northern Gaza is in a "full-blown famine."
AP video shot by Imad Issied
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