Palestinian President Abbas warns of ‘second Nakba’ catastrophe in Gaza

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday warned against a “second Nakba” catastrophe facing Palestinians after the Israeli army ordered more than one million people to evacuate north Gaza.

Abbas “completely rejects the displacement of our people from the Gaza Strip, because it will be tantamount to a second Nakba for our people,” he said, according to a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The Nakba, or “catastrophe”, refers to some 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war that coincided with Israel´s creation. His remarks came after the Israeli military dropped leaflets on the blockaded Gaza Strip warning people to flee from the north, an area home to some 1.1 million people.

Abbas´s Palestinian Authority is seated in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, and is split from the militant group Hamas which rules Gaza.According to the United Nations, more than 423,000 people have already fled their homes in the long-blockaded territory of 2.4 million.

In 1948 more than 760,000 Palestinians either fled or were forced off land claimed by the new state as the Israeli military razed more than 400 towns and villages.

The exodus created huge numbers of refugees spread across the region.Meanwhile, thousands of protesters poured onto the streets of several Middle East capitals on Friday in support of Palestinians amid Israeli air strikes on Gaza in reprisal for a surprise Hamas attack.

“No to the occupation! No to America!” chanted demonstrators gathered in central Baghdad after Moqtada Sadr called for a protest “in support of Gaza” and against Israel, an AFP journalist reported.

“This rally is aimed at condemning what is happening in occupied Palestine, the bloodletting and the violation of rights,” said Abu Kayan, an organiser of the protest.

The besieged Gaza Strip has been under heavy Israeli bombardment since Saturday when Hamas militants stormed Israel´s southern border and killed more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians.

The Israeli strikes that followed have killed at least 1,799 people, also mostly civilians, in the Gaza Strip which has already been under a land, sea and air blockade for more than 15 years.

In Egypt, videos on social media showed hundreds of protesters near Cairo´s Al-Azhar mosque chanting in solidarity with Gaza.

“Arab and Muslim countries have the duty and the responsibility to provide urgent humanitarian aid and help to the Palestinians of Gaza”, the university of Al-Azhar, the highest institution in Sunni Islam, said in a statement.