Dozens of Palestinians injured in Nakba Day protests in Ramallah

Commemorations were held across the West Bank and Gaza despite escalations in Jenin and Jerusalem.
3 min read
West Bank
16 May, 2022
Nakba day confrontations arrived days after ISraeli forces killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

Twenty Palestinians were injured on Sunday during confrontations between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces at the northern entrance of Ramallah, in the centre of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement that 17 Palestinians were injured with rubber bullets, while seven more were hit with live fire. The Red Crescent added that its teams treated 20 cases of suffocation by tear gas.

Protests followed the commemoration activities of the 74th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba Day in Ramallah. Earlier on Sunday, a central march, organised by the PLO’s higher committee for the commemoration of the Nakba started at Yasser Arafat’s mausoleum in Al-Bireh and ended in Ramallah city centre, concluding with a series of speeches and performances.

Nakba2022 Ramalllah / Qassam Muaddi
Palestinians participating at the Nakba day commemoration in Ramallah on Sunday [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

“I am from Lod, from which my family was expelled when I was a newborn”, Sabiha, a woman in her late seventies who participated in the commemoration ceremony told The New Arab.

“I always participate in the Nakba Day commemoration march and I will continue to do as far as my health allows me until I return to Lod, and if I don’t, my grandchildren will”, she added.

Mohammad, a father in his late forties accompanied by his two 6-year-old and 8-year-old daughters told The New Arab: “I came from Biddo, west of Ramallah, because I want my daughters to know what the Nakba is.

“It’s important to let our children learn about the cause from an early age”, he added.

“I came from Faysal Husseini girls' school with my classmates to commemorate the Nakba”, Karmel, a 12-year schoolgirl, told The New Arab.

“Today is the anniversary of the catastrophe of Palestine, when many people became refugees”, explained Karmel, “I am here to say that we, the young, will never forget”, she stressed.

After the official ceremony ended, a group of youth who chanted slogans, was joined by bystanders and began to walk towards the northern entrance of Ramallah, where other protesters had already been facing armed Israeli forces.

Israeli forces fired rubber and live bullets and tear gas canisters at protesters.

Nakba2022 Ramallah / Qassam Muaddi
Following the official ceremony in Ramallah, Palestinian youths marched to the city's northern entrance and confronted Israeli forces [Qassam Muaddi/TNA]

Other Nakba Day commemorations took place in other West Bank cities and in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Palestinian factions organised a central commemoration march.

The 74th Nakba commemorations arrived less than a week after Israeli forces demolished a three-story residential building in Silwan in Jerusalem on Tuesday, due to an alleged lack of building permit, leaving 35 Palestinians homeless.

In the same week, Israeli forces killed Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh while covering an Israeli military raid in Jenin, and 16-year-old Thaer Yazouri, while taking part in a protest outside his school in Al-Bireh.