and especially as refugees, says Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. “Seventy percent of Gaza’s population descend from Palestinian refugees who left the villages and towns in 1948 and 1967 during all the wars of establishing Israel,” Qarmout told Al Jazeera.

“Israel is a settler colonial project, so they want the land without the people … Since the onset of this genocidal war, [the goal] has been to empty Gaza of its people.” What it now means is that Palestinians are returning north and are hanging on “to the land, hanging on to their rights, hanging on to everything they believe in”, he added. There is generational trauma from when Palestinians were forced to leave their lands in the early wars of establishing Israel, Qarmout explained. “Thousands of them left carrying just their keys, thinking that they will be able to return in days or weeks, and they never returned,” he said. “So this generation inherited this trauma, inherited this massive loss, and they are adamant not to do it again.” (Aljazeera)