Before Palestinian forces declared war on them in 1948, Jewish settlers started out legally buying the land. and I believe those who did not flee and were not driven away in the Nakba retained their land. Certainly there were a lot of bad actors in this conflict though, lots of terrorist attacks and massacres by both Arabs and Jews once the cycle of violence got going. Many thinking they were temporarily fleeing danger only to later learn they cannot return.

Yeah just people trying to keep themselves safe in that land _they their ancestors took that did not belong to them.

1948 was a long time ago.