Editing Palestinian refugees (section)

==Refugee statistics==
{{Further|Palestinian refugee camps}}
[[File:DestrJabaliaHouse.jpg|thumb|Destroyed house in the [[Jabalia Camp|Jabalia]] refugee camp, [[Gaza–Israel conflict]], December 2012]]
The number of Palestine refugees varies depending on the source. For 1948–49 refugees, for example, the [[Israeli government]] suggests a number as low as 520,000 as opposed to 850,000 by their Palestinian counterparts.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} As of January 2015, UNRWA cites 5,149,742 registered refugees in total, of whom 1,603,018 are registered in camps.<ref name="UNRWA2015"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;"
|- style="background: #E9E9E9"
! District !! Number of depopulated villages !! Number of refugees in 1948 !! Number of refugees in 2000
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Beersheba Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Beersheba]]
|align="right"| 88 || 90,507 || 590,231
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Beisan Subdistrict|Beisan]]
|align="right"| 31 || 19,602 || 127,832
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Jenin Subdistrict|Jenin]]
|align="right"| 6 || 4,005 || 26,118
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Haifa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Haifa]]
|align="right"| 59 || 121,196 || 790,365
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Hebron Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Hebron]]
|align="right"| 16 || 22,991 || 149,933
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Ramle Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Ramle]]
|align="right"| 64 || 97,405 || 635,215
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Safad Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Safad]]
|align="right"| 78 || 52,248 || 340,729
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Tiberias Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Tiberias]]
|align="right"| 26 || 28,872 || 188,285
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Tulkarm Subdistrict|Tulkarm]]
|align="right"| 18 || 11,032 || 71,944
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Acre Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Acre]]
|align="right"| 30 || 47,038 || 306,753
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Gaza Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Gaza]]
|align="right"| 46 || 79,947 || 521,360
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Jerusalem Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Jerusalem]]
|align="right"| 39 || 97,950 || 638,769
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Nazareth Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Nazareth]]
|align="right"| 5 || 8,746 || 57,036
|-
| style="text-align:left;"|[[Jaffa Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine|Jaffa]]
|align="right"| 25 || 123,227 || 803,610
|-
! style="text-align:center;"| Total
| '''531''' || '''804,766''' || '''5,248,185'''
|-
|colspan="7" style="background:#e9e9e9;font-size:90%;"| Demography of Palestine<ref>[[Demographics of the Palestinian territories|Population in Palestine]] (March 2016)</ref>
|}

The number of UNRWA registered Palestine refugees by country or territory in January 2015 were as follows:<ref name="UNRWA2015">{{cite web|title=UNRWA in figures|url=http://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/unrwa_in_figures_2015.pdf|publisher=UNRWA}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable"
|-
|{{flag|Jordan}} || 2,117,361
|-
| {{flag|Gaza Strip}} || 1,276,929
|-
| {{flag|West Bank}} || 774,167
|-
| {{flag|Syria}} || 528,616
|-
| {{flag|Lebanon}} || 452,669
|-
| '''Total''' || '''5,149,742'''
|}

===Gaza Strip===
[[File:2018 Gaza border protest.jpg|thumb|[[2018 Gaza border protests]], [[Bureij]] refugee camp in Gaza]]
As of January 2015, the [[Gaza Strip]] has 8 UNRWA refugee camps with 560,964 Palestinian refugees, and 1,276,929 registered refugees in total,<ref name="UNRWA2015"/> out of a population of 1,816,379.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

===West Bank===
As of January 2015, the [[West Bank]] has 19 UNRWA refugee camps with 228,560 Palestinian refugees, and 774,167 registered refugees in total,<ref name="UNRWA2015"/> out of a population of 2,345,107.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

===Jordan===
{{See also|Palestinians in Jordan}}
"More than 2 million registered Palestine refugees live in Jordan. Most Palestine refugees in Jordan, but not all, have full citizenship",<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/jordan |title= Where We Work |publisher= UNRWA |access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref> following [[Jordanian annexation of the West Bank|Jordan's annexation and occupation of the West Bank]]. The percentage of Palestinian refugees living in refugee camps to those who settled outside the camps is the lowest of all UNRWA fields of operations. Palestine refugees are allowed access to public services and healthcare, as a result, refugee camps are becoming more like poor city suburbs than refugee camps. Most Palestine refugees moved out of the camps to other parts of the country and the number of people registered in refugee camps as of January 2015 is 385,418, who live in ten refugee camps.<ref name="UNRWA2015"/> This caused UNRWA to reduce the budget allocated to Palestine refugee camps in Jordan. Former UNRWA chief-attorney James G. Lindsay wrote in 2009: "In Jordan, where 2 million Palestinian refugees live, all but 167,000 have citizenship, and are fully eligible for government services including education and health care." Lindsay suggests that eliminating services to refugees whose needs are subsidized by [[Jordan]] "would reduce the refugee list by 40%".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.jpost.com/EditionFrancaise/Home.aspxservlet/Satellite?cid=1233304645372&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708164719/http://www.jpost.com/EditionFrancaise/Home.aspxservlet/Satellite?cid=1233304645372&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter |url-status=dead |title= Israel News - Online Israeli News Covering Israel & The Jewish World |date=8 July 2012 |archive-date=8 July 2012 |website= jpost.com}}</ref><ref name=Lindsay2009>{{cite journal |url= https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PolicyFocus91.pdf |title= Fixing UNRWA |author= James G. Lindsay |page= 52 (see footnote 11) |journal= Policy Focus |issue= 91 |publisher= The Washington Institute for Near East Policy |date= January 2009 |access-date= 4 April 2020 |archive-date= 31 July 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220731164234/https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/PolicyFocus91.pdf |url-status= dead }}</ref>

Palestinians who moved from the [[West Bank]] (whether refugees or not) to Jordan, are issued yellow-ID cards to distinguish them from the Palestinians of the "official 10 refugee camps" in Jordan. From 1988 to 2012, thousands of those yellow-ID card Palestinians had their Jordanian citizenship revoked. [[Human Rights Watch]] estimated that about 2,700 Palestinians were stripped of Jordanian nationality between 2004 and 2008.<ref>[https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/02/01/jordan-stop-withdrawing-nationality-palestinian-origin-citizens Jordan: Stop Withdrawing Nationality from Palestinian-Origin Citizens] - [[Human Rights Watch]].</ref> In 2012, the Jordanian government promised to stop revoking the citizenship of some Palestinians, and restored citizenship to 4,500 Palestinians who had previously lost it.<ref>[http://www.timesofisrael.com/jordan-promises-to-stop-revoking-nationality-from-palestinians/ Jordan promises to stop revoking citizenship from Palestinians] - ''[[Times of Israel]]''</ref>

===Lebanon===
{{See also|Palestinians in Lebanon|Karantina massacre|Tel al-Zaatar massacre|Sabra and Shatila massacre}}
[[File:Shatila - street view (2).jpg|thumb|[[Shatila refugee camp]] on the outskirts of [[Beirut]] in May 2019]]
[[File:Bourj el-Barajneh entrance - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg|thumb|Entrance to the [[Bourj el-Barajneh]] refugee camp in southern Beirut]]
100,000 Palestinians fled to Lebanon because of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and were not allowed to return.<ref name="amn">{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE18/010/2007 |title=Lebanon Exiled and suffering: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon |year=2007 |work=Amnesty International |access-date=8 November 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211203636/http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE18/010/2007 |archive-date=11 December 2013 }}</ref> As of January 2015, there were 452,669 registered refugees in Lebanon.<ref name="UNRWA2015"/>

In a 2007 study, [[Amnesty International]] denounced the "appalling social and economic condition" of Palestinians in Lebanon.<ref name="amn"/> Until 2005, Palestinians were forbidden to work in over 70 jobs because they do not have Lebanese citizenship, but this was later reduced to around 20 as of 2007 after liberalization laws.<ref name="amn"/> In 2010, Palestinians were granted the same rights to work as other foreigners in the country.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/world/middleeast/18lebanon.html|title=Lebanon Gives Palestinians New Work Rights|date=18 August 2010|work=The New York Times}}</ref>

Lebanon gave citizenship to about 50,000 Christian Palestinian refugees during the 1950s and 1960s. In the mid-1990s, about 60,000 Shiite Muslim refugees were granted citizenship. This caused a protest from Maronite authorities, leading to citizenship being given to all Christian refugees who were not already citizens.<ref name="v">Simon Haddad, The Origins of Popular Opposition to Palestinian Resettlement in Lebanon, ''International Migration Review'', Volume 38 Number 2 (Summer 2004):470-492. Also Peteet [http://www.arts.mcgill.ca/MEPP/PRRN/papers/peteet.html].</ref>

In the 2010s, many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon began immigrating to Europe, both legally and illegally, as part of the [[European migrant crisis]], due to a deterioration in living conditions there as part of the [[Syrian civil war]]. In December 2015, sources told ''[[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al Jazeera]]'' that thousands of Palestinians were fleeing to Europe by way of [[Turkey]], with about 4,000 having fled the [[Ain al-Hilweh]] camp alone in recent months. Many were reaching [[Germany]], with others going to [[Russia]], [[Sweden]], [[Belgium]], and [[Norway]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/3/why-are-lebanons-palestinians-leaving-for-europe|title=Why are Lebanon's Palestinians leaving for Europe?|first=Nour|last=Samaha|date=3 December 2015|website=www.aljazeera.com}}</ref> A census completed in January 2018 found that only around 175,000 Palestinian refugees were living in Lebanon, as opposed to previous UNRWA figures which put the number at between 400,000 and 500,000, as well as other estimates that placed the number between 260,000 and 280,000.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.businessnews.com.lb/cms/Story/StoryDetails.aspx?ItemID=6343|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115124739/http://www.businessnews.com.lb/cms/Story/StoryDetails.aspx?ItemID=6343|url-status=dead|title=Palestinian refugees number 175,000|first=Samer|last=Rasbey|date=22 December 2017|archive-date=15 January 2018|website=Business News}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/lebanon-census-finds-number-of-palestinian-refugees-only-a-third-of-official-un-data-1.5629560|title=Lebanon Census Finds Number of Palestinian Refugees Only a Third of Official UN Data|date=25 December 2017|newspaper=Haaretz}}</ref>

According to writer and researcher Mudar Zahran, a Jordanian of Palestinian heritage, the media chose to deliberately ignore the conditions of the Palestinians living in Lebanese refugee camps, and that the "tendency to blame Israel for everything" has provided Arab leaders with an excuse to deliberately ignore the human rights of the Palestinian in their countries.<ref name="anti-israel-bias" >[http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=183252 Demonizing Israel is bad for the Palestinians], by Mudar Zarhan, 1 August 2010, Jerusalem Post</ref>

===Syria===
{{See also|Palestinians in Syria}}
[[Syria]] had 528,616 registered Palestinian refugees in January 2015. There were 9 UNRWA refugee camps with 178,666 official Palestinian refugees.<ref name="UNRWA2015"/>

As a result of the [[Syrian civil war]], large numbers of Palestinian refugees fled Syria to Europe as part of the [[European migrant crisis]], and to other Arab countries. In September 2015, a Palestinian official said that only 200,000 Palestinian refugees were left in Syria, with 100,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria in Europe and the remainder in other Arab countries.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/100000-Palestinians-have-fled-Syria-to-Europe-official-says-415395|title=100,000 Palestinians have fled Syria to Europe, official says|work=The Jerusalem Post - JPost.com|date=6 September 2015 }}</ref>

===Saudi Arabia===
An estimated 240,000 [[Palestinian people|Palestinians]] are living in Saudi Arabia.

===Iraq===
{{Main|Palestinians in Iraq}}
There were 34,000 Palestinian refugees living in Iraq prior to the [[Iraq War]]. In the aftermath of the war, the majority fled to neighboring Jordan and Syria, or were killed.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}} Thousands lived as [[internally displaced person]]s within Iraq or were stranded in camps along Iraq's borders with Jordan and Syria, as no country in the region would accept them, and lived in temporary camps along the [[no man's land]] in the border zones.

===Other countries===
[[India]] agreed to take in 165 refugees, with the first group arriving in March 2006. Generally, they were unable to find work in India as they spoke only Arabic though some found employment with [[UNHCR]]'s non-governmental partners. All of them were provided with free access to public hospitals. Of the 165 refugees, 137 of them later found clearance for resettlement in [[Sweden]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/4919b20b4.html|title=UNHCR - Palestinians bid goodbye to India, hello Sweden|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|work=UNHCR}}</ref> In November 2006, 54 were granted asylum in [[Canada]], and in 2007, some 200 were accepted for resettlement in Sweden and [[Iceland]], and [[Brazil]] agreed to take 100.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/08/05/iraq.palestinians/|title=Sweden, Iceland absorbing Palestinian refugees - CNN.com|website=www.cnn.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23126#.VoCqr3b2DIU|title=United Nations News Centre|date=3 July 2007|work=UN News Service Section}}</ref>

In 2009, significant numbers of these refugees were allowed to [[third country resettlement|resettle]] abroad. More than 1,000 were accepted by various countries in Europe and South America, and an additional 1,350 were cleared for resettlement in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unhcr.org/4b67064c6.html|title=UNHCR - End of long ordeal for Palestinian refugees as desert camp closes|author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees|work=UNHCR}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124778007172153909|title=U.S. Agrees to Resettle Palestinians Displaced by Iraq War|author=Miriam Jordan|date=17 July 2009|work=WSJ}}</ref> Another 68 were allowed to resettle in Australia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/45343|title=Palestinian-Iraqi refugees – the forgotten victims of Iraq war|date=5 September 2016}}</ref> However, the majority of Palestine refugees strongly oppose resettlement and much rather want to [[voluntary return|return]] to their homes in [[Palestine (region)|the region of Palestine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/resettlement.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225211043/http://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/resettlement.pdf|url-status=live|archive-date=25 February 2017|title=page 68ff|website=fmreview.org}}</ref>