(NEWSnet/AP) — Palestinians are commemorating Nakba Day, marking 76 years of dispossession and mass expulsion from what is now Israel.

"Nakba" is arabic for catastrophe, which also describes the ongoing the war in Gaza, where more than 500,000 people have been displaced in recent days.

Israel has been pressing its military operations in Rafah and in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped.

Around 450,000 Palestinians have been driven from Rafah within the past week, U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees said. In northern Gaza, Israeli evacuation orders have displaced at least 100,000 people.

About 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the start of the war, many relocating multiple times.

No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza in more than a week. More than a million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, according to United Nations.

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