Thread by @MiddleEastEye

72 years have passed since the Nakba, or “Catastrophe”, which marks the mass exodus of over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating a refugee crisis which has remained unresolved

The Nakba was the result of the partition of Mandatory Palestine in 1948 after WW2 ended, as the United Nations and world powers realigned the borders of the Middle East

Jewish paramilitary groups – some of whose members would go on to become key Israeli leaders, including Yitzhak Rabin, Ariel Sharon and Moshe Dayan – produced a plan to control the borders of the new territory gained by the resolution

In the following weeks and months, these groups killed thousands of Palestinians and displaced hundreds of thousands. Similar numbers of Jews were also killed by retaliating Palestinian groups

The British retreat and subsequent ethnic cleansing of Palestinians coincided with the harvest season, the loss of which was a calamity in itself for farmers.

"The villagers were about to harvest their corn but were forced to flee” ow.ly/bQ2w30qGjuD

The Arab-Israeli war, which began on 15 May 1948, a day after Israel declared independence, forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

An estimated 5.3m Palestinians, recognised as refugees by the UN, currently live outside of Israel and maintain they were victims of ethnic cleansing during the 1948 conflict and insist on their right to return to their homeland

Defying Resolution 194 passed by the UN in 1948, Israel refuses to meet this demand, believing that doing so would alter the Jewish nature of the state

#NakbaDay is now a key commemorative date in the Palestinian calendar, and is traditionally marked on 15 May often by displaying keys and housing documents which affirms connection to their homeland

📸: AFP

What is the Nakba? Day of catastrophe for Palestinians, explained ow.ly/o5V630qGjBi

Palestinian houses, cinemas, shops, mosques, train stations and markets were all lost in 1948.

These before and after images show Palestine then and now ow.ly/bLJ730qGjCY

After the Nakba: What if Wales had been offered to the Jews as a homeland? | Kamel Hawwash ow.ly/Nby230qGjEZ

On the 72nd anniversary, Nakba survivors share with Middle East Eye their memories of the lives and land they lost.

"We lived the best of lives” – 88-year-old Khadija al-Azza ow.ly/UhgX30qGjHh

“The zealotry of the British, German and US Protestant colonists in Palestine in the 19th century was the prelude to so many more calamities to hit the Palestinian people” | Joseph Massad ow.ly/WUVC30qGjIl

"The Nakba is not a past event. The dispossession of lands, homes and the creation of refugees have continued almost without pause since" | @davidahearst ow.ly/fWBZ30qGjJI

@davidahearst 74-year-old Rafi Faqha and his family were forcibly expelled from the Palestinian town of Bissan by Zionist militias in May 1948.

"Only the air remains for us - they have not confiscated it from us, yet" ow.ly/XlKz30qGl87