Three years of the 'third Nakba' in the West Bank: Palestinian Bedouins repeatedly forced from their homes

Abu Najjeh, the former head of the Bedouin community at Ein Samiya, has just experienced his seventh forced displacement since 1948. He calls this the 'third Nakba' – an ongoing, violent, and relentless expulsion campaign in the occupied West Bank, as he told Al Jazeera on May 15, 2026, two days before Nakba Day.

Earlier that same morning, Jewish settlers stole hundreds of sheep and two tractors belonging to a member of his clan in Jiljilyya and shot dead 16-year-old Yousef Kaabneh, also of Abu Najjeh's Kaabneh clan. Yousef and his family had been driven out of Wadi as-Seeq since 2023, one of dozens of Palestinian Bedouin communities destroyed since October 7, 2023.

Yousef's family moved to Jiljilyya, hoping to be safe under the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Area A, where Israeli civilians are banned. But that morning, dozens of armed settlers swept through Jiljilyya, Sinjil and Abwein, firing on civilians and killing Yousef. The incident happened just two days before Nakba Day (May 15), when Palestinians commemorate the 750,000 people forcibly expelled during the 1948 Nakba – the ethnic cleansing that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel on historic Palestinian land.

Abu Najjeh now lives in a makeshift tent on the outskirts of Rammun, a few hundred metres from a new illegal outpost. 'Where else is there to go?' he laments.

A long history of expulsion

That question has haunted the Kaabneh clan for eight decades. Before 1948, they were Bedouins of the larger Jahalin tribe, roaming freely in the Bir al-Saba area of the Naqab desert. In 1948, they were expelled by Zionist paramilitary forces during the Nakba. Pushed north to the West Bank under Jordanian control (1948–1967), they wandered through Masafer Yatta towards Ramallah.

In 1967, the Israelis again forced them to leave after occupying the West Bank. 'They gave us 24 hours – deported us to al-Muarrajat, with no water, in September,' Abu Najjeh recalls. Throughout the 1970s, successive Israeli military orders pushed them across southern West Bank areas and towards Ramallah.

Around 1980, they found what they called home at Ein Samiya, a hill east of Ramallah. Their livestock grew to 2,500 head, and children attended school. 'It felt serene,' Abu Najjeh remembers.

Starting in 2019, an outpost was set up nearby. By 2021, harassment on grazing land escalated into attacks on the residential area. Settlers blocked access to the spring, placed sharp nails on roads, photographed herds before confiscating them. Due to theft, poisoning, and land restrictions, the herd shrank from 2,500 to below 500. In May 2023, Ein Samiya became one of the first Bedouin communities forcibly displaced, even before the October 7, 2023 attack.

'We didn't think they would come'

Most Ein Samiya residents fled to Khirbet Abu Falah in Area B, where the PA has administrative control but shares security with Israel. 'We thought Area B was safe,' Abu Najjeh says. But by 2025, new illegal outposts rose near the area, and settlers followed to attack.

During this year's Ramadan, 'we had to leave again, expelled while fasting,' he recounts. His eight married sons are scattered. Abu Najjeh himself came to Rammun with one son and a few grandchildren.

'I don't know where to go'

On the hillside in Rammun, there is no electricity; water must be trucked in at 250 shekels (USD 86) per tank. The plot sits among cultivated olive groves – no grazing is possible. 'It's wrong to graze on a neighbour's farmland,' he says. The remaining animals are no longer a livelihood but a burden.

The community's children, ever since they saw settlers, have been terrified. 'At night they dream of settlers. By day they are scared. When they see a car, they say it's the settlers,' Abu Najjeh says. Even on this tiny, useless piece of land, settlers erected a new outpost in the Rammun area just last week, less than a kilometre from his tent. 'I am afraid every night, every moment. They are right there. One kilometre, half a kilometre, 300 metres. But I don't know where to go. There is no place left to go. That is the problem,' he says.

'We live on the land and die in it'

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), from January 2023 to May 4, 2026, more than 5,900 people from 117 communities across the West Bank have been wholly or partially displaced due to settler attacks and access restrictions. Forty-five communities have been completely wiped out. In 2026 alone, about 2,000 people were driven from their homes. Tens of thousands of other Palestinians have also been forced to leave their homes because of Israeli military operations in the West Bank.

Settler attacks and near-daily Israeli army raids into Palestinian towns and villages have killed at least 1,090 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the UN.

'We live on the land and die in it,' Abu Najjeh says, quoting a Bedouin proverb. 'But brother, we need people. A community of 70 people trying to resist 60 to 70 – they cannot resist.'

Suddenly, Abu Najjeh stands up. His sons are somewhere in Jiljilyya, amid rampaging settlers and soldiers. 'My people need me – I have to go,' he says, and hurries away.