A picture shows a displacement camp in the al-Mawasi area in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 20, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
Ramallah: The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics has revealed that over 6 million refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Palestine and the diaspora, highlighting the ongoing plight of those displaced forcibly during the 1948 Nakba.
Marking World Refugee Day on June 20, as established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, the Bureau noted that UNRWA records as of January 2022 show approximately 5.9 million registered Palestinian refugees.
Of these, around 2.5 million reside in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, constituting roughly 42 percent of the total Palestinian refugee population (15 percent in the West Bank and 27 percent in Gaza).
The Bureau also detailed the distribution of registered refugees in Arab countries, indicating that about 40 percent of Palestinian refugees are in Jordan, 8 percent in Lebanon, and 10 percent in Syria.
These figures represent the minimum number of Palestinian refugees, acknowledging the existence of unregistered refugees.
This count excludes those displaced post-1949 until the June 1967 war, as per UNRWA's definition, and also does not account for Palestinians displaced during the 1967 war who were not initially refugees.
