As Palestinians mark the 78th anniversary of the Nakba while enduring the continuing catastrophe of Gaza’s destruction at the hands of the Israeli occupation army, major questions are once again emerging over how these historic turning points have shaped the reality and future of occupied Jerusalem and, at its centre, Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s first qiblah.
Palestinians across all locations on Friday commemorated the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, the largest ethnic cleansing campaign of its time. The anniversary revives memories of the massacres committed by Zionist militias in 1948, when more than 70 massacres were carried out against Palestinians and over 957,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their towns and villages at gunpoint. Many became refugees in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and neighbouring Arab countries.
Today, after decades of military expansion and modernisation, the Israeli occupation has once again reopened that collective wound through its ongoing genocide in Gaza, which began on 7 October 2023 and has continued despite ceasefire agreements. The war has included thousands of massacres that have killed more than 72,549 Palestinians, most of them women and children, while injuring over 172,274 others. Thousands more remain missing beneath the rubble of destroyed homes or inside Israeli prisons.
Settling the Conflict Through Absolute Control
Researcher and Jerusalem affairs specialist Ziad Ibhais said the war on Gaza represents the peak of a broader liquidation project Israel had already been pursuing long before the current genocide.
“The genocide was not a sudden reaction detached from previous developments,” Ibhais told Arabi21. “It came as the culmination of a long standing process of elimination and settlement of the conflict.”
He explained that in 2017 the Israeli occupation introduced a vision for permanently resolving the conflict by transforming all of historic Palestine into an eternal Hebrew Jewish state. According to Ibhais, this shift was driven by Israeli recognition that global power balances were changing, weakening the United States as the sole global hegemon and principal colonial sponsor of the Zionist entity.
He argued that Israel viewed this transitional international moment as the final opportunity to impose irreversible realities before a new global order emerged.
Ibhais added that this period coincided with the rise of religious Zionism as the dominant ideological force within the Zionist project, alongside the resurgence of Christian Zionism in the United States, which contributed to Donald Trump’s political ascent.
“The idea of liquidation itself is not new,” he said. “It is inherent to Zionism as a settler colonial structure.”
According to Ibhais, the Israeli establishment became convinced that Zionism had entered its final phase and that the time had come to fulfil its delayed promises. Within that framework, Al Aqsa Mosque would ultimately become the Temple, Arab Jerusalem would become the Hebrew “Jerusalem”, and what he described as “Jewish ethnic purity” would be imposed across historic Palestine through Jewish statehood, displacement and the crushing of resistance.
He also pointed to broader objectives including eliminating the right of return, dismantling the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), erasing recognition of any Palestinian political entity including Palestine Liberation Organisation missions, and imposing Israeli regional dominance through deep normalisation with Arab states rather than limited peace agreements such as those signed with Egypt and Jordan.
“These objectives,” he said, “have been pursued in full partnership with Washington since 2017.”
Al Aqsa Mosque as the Centre of Confrontation
Ibhais argued that Palestinians responded to these efforts through a series of confrontations centred around Al Aqsa Mosque itself.
He identified the 2017 Bab al Asbat uprising, which blocked the installation of electronic gates at Al Aqsa, followed by the 2019 Bab al Rahma mobilisation, which prevented Israeli control over the Bab al Rahma prayer area and forced its reopening.
He also referenced the Sheikh Jarrah and Damascus Gate uprisings of 2021, as well as the prevention of the planned 28 Ramadan storming of Al Aqsa, events that culminated in the launch of the “Sword of Jerusalem” battle, which disrupted the Israeli nationalist “Flag March” and established what he described as a new deterrence equation against Israeli attempts to impose final realities.
According to Ibhais, the mass worship sit ins during April 2023 coincided with escalating regional military tensions that eventually led to the Al Aqsa Flood operation on 7 October 2023.
“In practice, Al Aqsa Mosque became the central title of confrontation in five out of the seven major confrontations fought by Palestinians between 2017 and 2023,” he said.
The remaining two confrontations were the 2018 Great Return Marches and the 2022 Unity of the Fronts battle, which emerged from different focal points.
“In total, the Palestinian people confronted the liquidation war through seven major confrontations in seven years.”
From Defensive Resistance to Reversing the Equation
Ibhais argued that Al Aqsa Flood threatened to move beyond merely blocking Israeli plans and instead attempted to force strategic retreats upon the Zionist project itself.
He said Israel and its Western allies responded by intensifying their commitment to the liquidation strategy, transforming it from a project combining political and military tools into one imposed primarily through overwhelming military force and continuous genocidal warfare across multiple fronts.
“This is what Benjamin Netanyahu and religious Zionism mean by the term ‘absolute victory’,” he said.
From this perspective, Ibhais described Al Aqsa Mosque as the central front in resisting the liquidation project embodied in the Gaza genocide.
He argued that the destruction of Gaza has directly affected the balance surrounding Al Aqsa by weakening the ability of Gaza’s resistance factions to influence events at the mosque, after previously functioning as a decisive deterrent force against Israeli escalation.
“That is the phase we are living through today,” he said.
According to Ibhais, Israel is attempting to transform the genocide in Gaza into a final historic moment aimed at destroying Palestinian national consciousness, ending the will to resist and imposing complete Zionist dominance over the Arab and Islamic worlds.
Despite this escalation, he noted that Israel still appears to be proceeding gradually in its aggression against Al Aqsa rather than launching a decisive final assault, although preparations for such a stage appear to be underway.
The Post Genocide Struggle Over Al Aqsa
At the same time, Ibhais argued that Israel’s repeated closure of Al Aqsa Mosque revealed an important reality despite official Arab and Muslim silence.
“The mosque remains the central symbol of mobilisation, legitimacy and collective strength,” he said.
He pointed to the scenes witnessed during Eid al Fitr, when worshippers gathered outside the closed mosque in growing numbers despite the trauma of genocide, intimidation and imprisonment.
“First they came in dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. Al Aqsa continues to function as a centre capable of shifting balances of power.”
Ibhais argued that the post genocide phase presents an opportunity to continue rebuilding resistance around Al Aqsa Mosque by renewing the culture of ribat and drawing new forces into the defence of Jerusalem.
Such a path, he said, could prevent Israel from turning the genocide into a permanent and irreversible endpoint while reviving Palestinian political and social resilience after the immense sacrifices made by Gaza and its resistance.
Nakba Anniversary and the Battle Over Jerusalem
Ibhais also noted the symbolic overlap this year between the Hebrew anniversary of Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem in 1967 and the anniversary of the Nakba.
He explained that Zionists commemorate the completion of Jerusalem’s occupation according to the Hebrew calendar on 28 May, which this year coincides with Friday 15 May 2026, the anniversary of the Nakba.
According to Ibhais, this overlap reflects the unity of the various dimensions of the conflict and their convergence around one symbolic centre: Al Aqsa Mosque.
“The Zionist liquidation war takes Al Aqsa as both its starting point and gateway,” he said, referring to the religious Zionist belief that control over the sacred opens the road toward control over everything else.
He stressed the critical importance of defending the identity of Al Aqsa Mosque and confronting Israeli incursions there as part of the broader struggle for the right of return and resistance against liquidation projects across all fronts.
Ibhais also warned against pessimistic narratives claiming that Israel will inevitably impose whatever realities it wishes at Al Aqsa.
“The practical experience that led to Al Aqsa Flood proves the exact opposite,” he said.
While acknowledging that the genocide disrupted the deterrence balance surrounding the mosque, he argued that responsibility now rests upon the wider Muslim Ummah to stand for justice and support Jerusalem until new forces eventually emerge to restore that balance.
“The task today,” he concluded, “is to preserve Al Aqsa Mosque and its identity until the moment of liberation arrives. Experience has proven that this is possible. It also opens the path beyond the genocide and resumes the process of preventing liquidation, ensuring that the crime does not succeed in imposing final realities but instead ultimately reverses the balance against those who committed it.”
