Today, June 20 of each year, is World Refugee Day, which was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000.

This day 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 numbers of refugees.

According to the data available to the Central Bureau of Statistics, more than 6 million refugees are still registered with the Relief and Relief Agency in Palestine and the Diaspora, and are suffering from asylum as a result of their forced displacement from their lands during the Nakba of 1948.

UNRWA records indicate that the number of Palestinian refugees registered with it in January 2022 was about 5.9 million Palestinian refugees, including about 2.5 million in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and thus they constitute about 42% of the Palestinian refugees (15% in the West Bank compared to 27% in the Gaza Strip).

At the level of Arab countries, the percentage of Palestinian refugees registered with the UNRWA in Jordan reached about 40% of the total Palestinian refugees, while in Lebanon and Syria this percentage reached about 8% and 10%, respectively.

These estimates represent the minimum number of Palestinian refugees, considering the presence of unregistered refugees, as this number does not include those Palestinians who were displaced after 1949 until the eve of the June 1967 war “according to UNRWA’s definition,” and it also does not include Palestinians who left or were deported in 1967 according to The background of the war and those who were not refugees in the first place.

About 66% of the total population in the Gaza Strip are refugees

The percentage of the refugee population in the State of Palestine was about 42.2% of the total Palestinian population residing in the State of Palestine in 2017. 26.3% of the population in the West Bank are refugees, while the percentage of refugees in the Gaza Strip was 66.1%.

More than 136,000 have been martyred in defense of Palestinian rights since the Nakba of 1948

The number of Palestinian and Arab martyrs since the Nakba in 1948 until today (inside and outside Palestine) has reached more than 136 thousand martyrs, while the number of martyrs since the beginning of the second intifada in 2000 until 04/30/2024 was about 46,500 martyrs, and there are more than 37,500 martyrs. During the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip from October 7, 2023 until June 13, 2024, including more than 15,162 children and 10,018 women, along with more than 147 journalists.

While more than 7,000 citizens are missing, most of them women and children, according to the records of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, and in the West Bank, 520 martyrs have died since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression on October 7, 2023. Nearly 2 people have also been displaced. One million citizens inside the Strip, far from their places of residence.

Difficult conditions for Palestinian refugees and non-refugees in the State of Palestine

In general, there are no significant differences attributable to the social and economic conditions of Palestinian refugees and non-refugees at the regional level. Education indicators indicate that the illiteracy rate among Palestinian refugees in the West Bank reached about 1.9% compared to 2.3% for non-refugees, and in the Gaza Strip this rate reached this rate. For refugees, 1.7% compared to 2.0% for non-refugees.

Unemployment rates in 2022 among refugees in the Gaza Strip reached 47%, compared to 42% for non-refugees, while the unemployment rate among refugees in the West Bank reached 14%, compared to 13% for non-refugees.

In light of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, unemployment rates have jumped to unprecedented levels (estimates indicate that unemployment rates will rise to reach 75% in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to 46% in the third quarter of 2023), which means The loss of at least 200,000 jobs during the first three months of the aggression.

Accordingly, the number of unemployed people increased to 317 thousand in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to about 129 thousand in the third quarter of 2023 before the aggression. Unemployment rates among individuals participating in the labor force in the West Bank in the fourth quarter of 2023 also increased to about (32%). ) compared to about 13% in the third quarter of 2023.

As a result of the continuous bombing and violent raids on the Gaza Strip, the death toll of students and teachers, and the destruction of the infrastructure of a significant number of schools, the educational process in the Gaza Strip has been disrupted since the beginning of the aggression, and about 620,000 students were deprived of their right to school education for the academic year 2023. /2024.

The number of martyrs among students enrolled in schools in Palestine reached 6,050 martyrs, 5,994 martyrs in the Gaza Strip, and 56 martyrs in the West Bank. While the number of wounded students enrolled in schools in Palestine reached 10,219 wounded, with 9,890 wounded in the Gaza Strip and 329 wounded in the West Bank.

Regarding the detained students enrolled in schools, 105 students were arrested, all of them from the West Bank.