The 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba (, "al-Nakbah", literally "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm"), occurred when more than 700,000Palestinian Arabsfled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. The term "nakba" also refers to the period of war itself and events affecting Palestinians from December 1947 to January 1949.