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'Reversing the Nakba': Images of Palestinian homecoming in Gaza spark hope online

Descendants of Palestinians who were expelled during Nakba react to 'first return' in Palestinian history
People walk along Gaza's coastal al-Rashid Street to cross Netzarim corridor from southern Gaza Strip into the north, on 27 January 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
By Maysa Mustafa
Published date: 27 January 2025 21:04 GMT | Last update: 2 weeks 1 day ago

As thousands of Palestinians return to their homes - or, for many, the rubble of what used to be their homes - many in the diaspora have taken to social media this week with their reactions to the images of the first mass Palestinian homecoming since the Nakba in 1948. 

According to the Gaza health ministry, around 650,000 displaced people in the central and southern Gaza Strip will return to their homes in the north after 15 months of Israel's war on the enclave. 

More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 2023, with the majority being women and children. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israel.

Videos of Palestinians flooding al-Rashid Street - which crosses the Netzarim corridor towards the north of the enclave - have been circulating on all social media platforms, with many people commenting on the historical meaning of the moment: "the first return in Palestinian history to the homeland," one person wrote on X.

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Many of the posts echo the sentiment that the return of Palestinians in Gaza is the beginning of the "reversal" of the Nakba (catastrophe), which refers to the creation of Israel in 1948 and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Zionist militias.

Hundreds of villages were destroyed, thousands were killed, and 80 percent of the Palestinian population was forcibly expelled from historic Palestine. 

"Today was the first step in reversing the Zionist ethnic cleansing that began in 1948 when the Nakba started. Palestinians STILL have the Right of Return. Today we showed the world how we will do it," Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abu Sitta wrote on X. 

One post on X showed a video of a family who embarked on their journey home in a boat rather than on foot, which the social media user compared to the image of people fleeing their homes in Palestine on boats in 1948. 

"1948: Grandparents board boats into the unknown. 2025: The grandchildren boarded the boat towards the port of Gaza". 

Palestinian journalist Samaa Khullar posted that she was thinking about her grandmother, who longs to return to her home in the village of Tulkarm, as she suffers from Alzheimer's.  

“I had a friend tell me today that they wish their grandparents were alive to see the people of Gaza return home ... I just keep thinking of our displaced elders: is it better that they never saw (or understood) this genocide? Or would this moment be more meaningful with them around? I don’t know the answer. I have faith that liberation will occur within my lifetime, I just hope to God it happens within my parents’ too." 

Palestinian journalist Lama al-Arian also reflected on her grandmother, who was displaced from Jaffa in 1948: “The scenes of return in North Gaza today has me in tears.”

In addition to thinking of those who never had a homecoming in Palestine, many say that this moment has ignited hope for the future of the Palestinian cause. 

"These videos are not only the antithesis of the Nakba-like displacement we’ve watched over the last 15 months, but like teasers of the future," New York City organiser and writer Jaylen Strong wrote on X.

"I can’t wait for the images that will erupt out of a free and liberated Palestine. It’ll be one of the most glorious days in history."

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