| Palestinian refugees | |
| Total population: | 4.25 million |
|---|---|
| Regions with significant populations: | Gaza Strip, Jordan, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria |
| Languages: | Arabic |
| Religions: | Sunni Islam, Greek Orthodoxy, Greek Catholicism, Other forms of Christianity |
Palestinian refugees are individuals, predominantly Arabs, who fled the British Mandate of Palestine during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The term originated during the first Palestinian Exodus (النكبة, Nakba, "catastrophe"), the beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) defines a Palestinian refugee as a person "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 conflict". Few of the Palestinian refugees who fled in 1948 are still alive.
UNRWA's definition of a refugee also covers the descendants of persons who became refugees in 1948 regardless of whether they reside in areas designated as refugee camps or in established, permanent communities. Based on this definition the number of Palestinian refugees has grown from 711,000 in 1950 to over four million registered with the UN in 2002. This is a major exception to the normal definition of refugee. Descendants of Palestinian refugees under the authority of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are the only group to be granted refugee status on that basis alone.
Some displaced Palestinians resettled in other countries where their situation is often precarious. Many remained refugees and continue to reside in refugee camps.
