Palestinian refugees

In 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations. Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village, or house during the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 1949, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) defined Palestinian refugees to refer to the original "Palestine refugees" as well as their patrilineal descendants. However, UNRWA's assistance is limited to Palestine refugees residing in UNRWA's areas of operation in the Occupied Palestinian Territoriy, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.


During the 1948 Palestine War, around 85% of the population or 700,000The exact number of refugees is disputed. See List of estimates of the Palestinian Refugee flight of 1948 for details. Palestinian Arabs, living in the area that became Israel fled or were expelled from their homes, to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and to the countries of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. They, and their descendants who are also entitled to registration, are assisted by UNWRA in 59 registered camps, ten of which were established in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967 to cope with the new wave of displaced Palestinians. They are also the world's oldest unsettled refugee population, having been under the ongoing governance of Arab states following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the refugee populations of the West Bank under Israeli governance since the Six-Day War and Palestinian administration since 1994, and the Gaza Strip administered by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) since 2007.

Today, the largest number of refugees, over 2,000,000, live in Jordan, where by 2009 over 90% of UNWRA-registered Palestinian refugees had acquired full citizenship rights. This figure consists almost exclusively of West Bank–descended Palestinians; however, as of December 2021, Palestinians with roots in the Gaza Strip are also still kept in legal limbo. In 2021, Jordanian politician Jawad Anani estimated that roughly 50% of Jordan's population had West Bank–Palestinian roots.Menachem Klein, 'The Palestinian refugees of 1948: models of allowed and denied return,' in Dumper, 2006 pp. 87–106, [93]. Another approximately 2,000,000 refugees live in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, under Israeli occupation and blockade. Approximately 500,000 refugees live in each of Syria and Lebanon respectively, albeit under very different circumstances. While Palestinian refugees in Syria maintained their stateless status, the Syrian government afforded them the same economic and social rights enjoyed by Syrian citizens; they are also drafted into the Armed Forces despite not being citizens. Citizenship or legal residency in some host countries is denied, most notably for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, where the absorption of Palestinians would upset a delicate confessional balance. For the refugees themselves, these situations mean they have reduced rights: no right to vote, limited property rights and access to social services, among other things. 

 Places and populations 

DistrictNumber of depopulated villagesNumber of refugees in 1948Number of refugees in 2000Beersheba88 90,507 590,231Beisan31 19,602 127,832Jenin6 4,005 26,118Haifa59 121,196 790,365Hebron16 22,991 149,933Ramle64 97,405 635,215Safad78 52,248 340,729Tiberias26 28,872 188,285Tulkarm18 11,032 71,944Acre30 47,038 306,753Gaza46 79,947 521,360Jerusalem39 97,950 638,769Nazareth5 8,746 57,036Jaffa25 123,227 803,610Total 531 804,766 5,248,185 Demography of Palestine

The number of UNRWA registered Palestine refugees by country or territory in January 2015 were as follows:

2,117,3611,276,929774,167528,616452,669Total5,149,742

 Related pages 

 Nakba





 Gaza genocide






 Notes 

References

Category:Palestinian refugee camps
Category:Palestinians
Category:Nakba