Where Palestinians live today

The Palestinian people are scattered throughout the Middle East and around the world, described as a true diaspora, not unlike what Jews have experienced throughout history. In total, approximately 5.3 million people live in Palestinian territory. 2 million 375 thousand people live in the small Gaza Strip, which is 365 square kilometers and one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with 6 thousand 507 people per square kilometer.

This is the area where Saturday’s attack, under the control of the Hamas militia, began, killing more than 700 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, and sparking a war with Israel that is still in its final stages. This figure, which has already killed more than 400 Palestinians, is expected to rise dramatically in the coming hours and days. The strip has been under a severe blockade since 2007 by Israel, which controls (or at least controls) everyone entering, leaving and all trade.

Nearly three million Palestinians also live in the West Bank, which is under the control of the Palestinian National Authority, the internationally recognized authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the secular Fatah and heir to historic Palestinian leader Arafat. However, this part of Palestine is actually occupied due to the presence of various Israeli military bases and the Tel Aviv military control regime in the area, which has 175 permanent checkpoints and other improvised road closures.

There are 144 illegal colonies in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where around 450 thousand Israelis live, most of them Orthodox Jews. Frankly, many Palestinians also live inside Israel; There are more than two million Arab-Israelis, representing 21% of the population and the main ethnic minority. Approximately 280,000 Palestinians live between East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

These are truly second-class Israeli citizens; Although they actually live in the Jewish state, they do not have the right to vote in the country because Tel Aviv does not consider them citizens of the country. This is why organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch openly define Israeli policy as Apartheid. Israel maintains near-absolute control over Palestinian lives, tens of thousands of Palestinians are at risk of forced eviction, and Israeli authorities have demolished 952 Palestinian structures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in recent years, displacing 1,031 people, according to AI. After years of conflict and Israel’s gradual expansion into lands once inhabited by Arabs, Palestinians have been dispersed throughout the region and the world.

There are so many refugees that the UN created a special agency to help them: UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Employment Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. While the agency took care of around 750 thousand refugees when it started its activities in 1950, today the number of people benefiting from its services is around 5.9 million. According to UNRWA data, almost a third of these refugees, or more than 1.5 million people, live in 58 refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. of Palestinians live outside Palestine. Of these, 5.59 million are in Arab countries (44% of the total) and approximately 700 thousand (5.5%) in the rest of the world.

Most Palestinians outside Palestine are refugees exiled during the so-called Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe), the displacement and property confiscation of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. the return of these persons, the return of their property or, alternatively, the receipt of compensation (decision no. 194). Since then, this demand has remained only on paper.

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Source: Today IT

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