Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled into exile. At present Palestinian refugees are thought to number more than 3.5 million. Palestine is not a country and never has been one. It's an area of the eastern Mediterranean, comprising parts of modern Israel and Jordan. Part of the region is also known as the Holy Land and is held sacred by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Water is scarce in the region making fresh water resources critical to survival.
The struggle of Palestinians for a homeland of their own received immediate support in the Arab world. The PLO is made up of several Palestinian groups and claims to be the sole representative of all Palestinian people. The PLO's basic principles and goals included the right to an independent state, the total liberation of Palestine, and the destruction of the State of Israel. These openly hostile goals only made the tension worse. The period which followed the formation of the PLO was marred by acts of terrorism by Palestinian factions and an uprising in the 1980s by the inhabitants of the Israeli occupied West Bank.