RAMALLAH, Palestine

Seventy-six years ago, Palestinian Mustafa Abu Awwad lived the experience of horrors and tragedies that resulted from his family's expulsion from their original home place at the hands of the Zionist gangs, in what became known as the Nakba of 1948.

Palestinians use the word "Nakba" in reference to the events of 1948, when armed Zionist militias forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave their homes and villages under the pressure of bombing and mass massacres in the historical lands of Palestine, pushing them further into the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and neighboring countries, in a major ethnical cleansing move prior to the announcement of the independence of Israel.

Mustafa Abu Awwad, 88, is currently living in the Nour Shams refugee camp near Tulkarem city, northern the occupied West Bank after he and his family were forced to flee their village in the course of the 1948 Nakba events.

He considers that the Palestinian people are living this year with a new Nakba that is worse than that of 1948.

❝What's happening today is worse than what was committed in the 1948 Nakba❞

❝My dream is to return there, to die there, have my burial there under the soil of my hometown,❞ says Nakba witness Mustafa Abu Awwad

Palestinians endure new Nakba under Israeli attacks… pic.twitter.com/h9rh7HVsmG

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) May 14, 2024

Horrors of the Nakba

Abu Awwad described his family's life in Sabbarin village, near Haifa city, currently northern Israel, as very beautiful days, before it turned into a life of refugees with Israel persecuting them till these days.

While speaking with Anadolu correspondent, he was holding documents of land ownership for his family in the village, as well as birth certificates of family members.

He said they were expelled from the village on May 12, 1948, describing it as a "terrible day."

"We took with us a few amount of luggage because we thought we would return back in a few days or weeks, but this turned out to be our entire life," Abu Awwad said.

"After one month (of our expulsion), we decided to return back to the village but found it besieged by armed gangs which killed 18 of the youths from the village, so we escaped again from the killing," he added.

He noted that following their expulsion, his family resided in a camp established by a charitable group, known as the Lutheran World Federation, near Jenin where they stayed there until 1951.

After that date, they moved to the Nour Shams refugee camp, where he still lives, he said.

"We never expected to be refugees," Abu Awwad said with a sigh.

Longing for Sabbarin village

"My family used to have a vast home, land lots for olives and wheat, and four camels that we used to transport the wheat and agricultural corps," Mustafa Abu Awwad said.

He added that there were four water streams in the Sabbarin village.

"The village used to gather in all festivals and ceremonies, we used to solve our problems without courts, it was a simple life," Abu Awwad also said.

After 76 years, the Palestinian old man still hopes that he be buried in his village.

A new Nakba

On his life in the camp, the Nour Shams refugee camp, he said: "The life in the camp is misery, Israel turned our life into a nightmare through the daily incursions into the camp."

"What's happening today is worse than what was committed in the 1948 Nakba," he said.

Following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Palestinian groups, his home in the Nour Shams refugee camp was vandalized by the Israeli forces during their incursions into the camp.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank since Israel launched a deadly military offensive against the Gaza Strip after a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.

Nearly 500 Palestinians have since been killed and around 4,900 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The right of return irreplaceable

"76 years passed but we still say 'relief is near', and the right of return must be realized," Abu Awwad said.

"The Palestinian refugee teaches his sons that they had original land and hometown for their grandparents, and they must return to them," he also said.

He noted that in the 1970s, he and his sons visited the village, now in Israel, and recognized the site of his family's home and ate from the fig trees there.

"My dream is to return there, to die there, and have my burial there under the soil of my village," Mustafa Abu Awwad concluded as saying.

The Nakba this year

On May 15, Palestinians, as in every year, mark the Nakba anniversary whether inside Palestine or outside by a series of events commemorating the tragic event.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics released a report marking the 76th Nakba anniversary indicating that since 1948, around 134,000 Palestinians and Arabs have been killed both inside and outside Palestine.

The Nakba anniversary this year comes as the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are experiencing an Israeli devastating onslaught that has been taking place since Oct. 7, and left over 35,000 Palestinians killed.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar