Palestinian refugee camps

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

Palestinian refugee camps were established after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War to accommodate Palestinian refugees who fled from the war.

This article lists the current Palestinian refugee camps with current population and year they were established.

The UNRWA defines a Palestinian refugee as:

"Palestine refugees are persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War."

UNRWA provides facilities in 59 recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It also provided relief to displaced persons inside the State of Israel following the 1948 conflict until the Israeli government took over responsibility for them in 1952.

For a camp to be recognized by UNRWA, there must be an agreement between the host government and UNRWA governing use of the camp. UNRWA does not itself run any camps, has no police powers or administrative role, but simply provides services to the camp. Refugee camps, which developed from tented cities to rows of concrete blockhouses to urban ghettos indistinguishable from their surroundings, house around one third of all registered Palestinian refugees. UNRWA also provides facilities in other areas where large numbers of registered Palestinian refugees live outside of recognized camps.

UNRWA's services are available to all those living in its area of operations who meet this definition, who are registered with the Agency and who need assistance. UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948. The number of registered Palestine refugees has subsequently grown from 914,000 in 1950 to more than 4.3 million in 2005."

Jordan

There are 10 official camps, 304,430 refugees.

1955, Amman New Camp (Wihdat), 49,805
1968, Baqa'a, 80,100
1968, Husn (Martyr Azmi el-Mufti), 19,573
1968, Irbid camp, 23,512
1952, Jabal el-Hussein, 27,674
1968, Jerash camp, 15,696
1968, Marka, 41,237
1967, Souf, 14,911
1968, Talbieh, 4,041
1949, Zarqa camp, 17,344

Lebanon

The total number of registered refugees is 409,714.

There are 12 official camps with 225,125 refugees.

1955, Beddawi, 15,695
1948, Burj el-Barajneh, 19,526
1955, Burj el-Shemali, 18,134
1956, Dbayeh, 4,223
Dikwaneh, destroyed
1948, Ein el-Hilweh, 44,133
1948, El-Buss, 9,840
Jisr el-Basha, destroyed
1952, Mar Elias, 1,406
1954, Mieh Mieh, 5,078
Nabatieh camp, destroyed in 1973
1949, Nahr al-Bared, 28,358 destroyed in 2007
1963, Rashidieh, 24,679
Sabra destroyed
1949, Shatila, 11,998
1948, Wavel, 7,357

Syria

There are 10 official camps with 119,776 refugees.

1950, Dera'a, 5,916
1967, Dera'a (Emergency), 5,536
1950, Hama, 7,597
1949, Homs, 13,825
1948, Jaramana, 5,007
1950, Khan Dunoun, 8,603
1949, Khan Eshieh, 15,731
1948, Neirab, 17,994
1967, Qabr Essit, 16,016
1948, Sbeineh, 19,624

Additional unofficial camps in Syria:

1955-6, Latakia camp, 6,534 registered refugees
1957, Yarmouk (Damascus), 112,550 registered refugees
1962, Ein Al-Tal, 4,329 registered refugees

West Bank

There are 19 official camps with 176,514 refugees.

,Abu-Dis (residents of this camp claim the territory of Ma'ale Adummim as their own).
1950, Aida, 4,151
1949, Am'ari, 8,083
1948, Aqabat Jabr, 5,197
1950, Arroub, 9,180
1950, Askar, 13,894
1950, Balata, 20,681
1950, Beit Jibrin, 1,828
1950, Camp No.1, 6,221
1949, Deir Ammar, 2,189
1949, Dheisheh, 10,923
1948, Ein as-Sultan, 1,888
1949, Far'a, 6,836
1949, Fawwar, 7,072
1949, Jalazone, 9,284
1953, Jenin, 14,050
1949, Kalandia, 9,188
1952, Nur Shams, 8,179
1965, Shu'fat, 9,567
1950, Tulkarm, 16,259

Gaza Strip

There are 8 official camps with 478,854 refugees.

1948, Beach camp (Shati), 76,109
1949, Bureij, 30,059
1948, Deir el-Balah camp, 20,188
1948, Jabalia (Jabaliya), 103,646
1949, Khan Yunis, 60,662
1949, Maghazi, 22,536
1949, Nuseirat, 64,233
1949, Rafah camp, 90,638

References

Maps

External links and references

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday July 17, 2008 at 10:32:39 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation