The "Nakba" means "catastrophe", and refers to Israel's depopulation of over 450 villages, 60 massacres, and creation of over 700,000 permanent Palestinian refugees in 1948. This was the start of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land, a process which continues to this day. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has stated there were over 4.4 million Palestinian refugees in 2006 just from the original Nakba, a conservative number which includes only those displaced in 1948 and their descendants.
