June 20 of each year, marks World Refugee Day, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000, and which is devoted to introducing the issue of refugees, highlighting their suffering and needs, and discussing ways to support and assist them in light of the increasing crises and number.
According to the data available from the Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 6.4 million Palestinian refugees are still registered in the records of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees “UNRWA”, suffering from the asylum, as a result of their forced displacement from their lands during the Nakba in 1948.
Ethnic Cleansing and the Palestinian Nakba
The Nakba constituted the largest ethnic cleansing operation in the twentieth century, as more than 950,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their villages and cities by force of arms and threats to the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and neighboring Arab countries, out of 1,400,000 Palestinians who resided in historic Palestine in 1948.
The Israeli occupation took control of more than 85% of the area of historical Palestine, which is about 27 thousand square kilometers.
The Nakba has transformed a safe and stable people in their homeland, into refugees in the camps of misery.
Despite all the past decades, Palestinians have not given up the right to return to the homes from which they were expelled by force of arms in 1948, and they are still teaching their children the meaning of the homeland, and their right to return no matter how long it takes the years.
Palestinian Refugees Still Distributed Among Refugee Camps
According to the records of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees “UNRWA”, the number of Palestinian refugee camps has reached 58 camps, distributed as 10 camps in Jordan, 9 camps in Syria, 12 in Lebanon, 19 in the West Bank, and 8 camps in the Gaza Strip.
These estimates represent the minimum number of Palestinian refugees, given that there are unregistered refugees, as this number does not include those Palestinians who were displaced after 1948 until June 1967 war.
The Majority of Palestinian Refugees in the Gaza Strip and the West-Bank are Under Poverty Line
The dangerous rise in poverty rates reached 80%, severe poverty reached 36%, and the unemployment rate reached 85%. UNRWA announced that 80% of the population in the Gaza Strip is totally dependent on humanitarian aid.
31 percent of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and 81 percent in Gaza face challenges in meeting basic essential needs, especially in accessing food, health, and public utilities.
By the end of April 2023, reports showed that 8% of Palestinian families in the West Bank and 73% of families in Gaza received humanitarian assistance.
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