Ramallah (UNA/WAFA) – Head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Ola Awad, reviewed the reality of the Palestinian people on the 77th anniversary of the Nakba on Monday.
Awad said that 957 Palestinians were displaced out of a total of 1.4 million who lived in approximately 1,300 Palestinian villages and cities in 1948, to the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and neighboring Arab countries. Thousands were also internally displaced within the territories under Israeli occupation since 1948. The occupation took control of 774 Palestinian villages and cities, 531 of which were completely destroyed, while the remaining Palestinian communities were subjected to the occupation entity and its laws. This cleansing process was accompanied by Zionist gangs committing more than 70 massacres against Palestinians, resulting in the martyrdom of more than 15 Palestinians.
She noted that the Israeli occupation continues to commit the most heinous crimes against the Palestinian people, which have escalated at a more intense pace during the current aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since October 2023, XNUMX.
The population of historic Palestine in 1914 was approximately 690, of which only 8% were Jews. In 1948, the population exceeded two million, of which approximately 31.5% were Jews. Between 1932 and 1939, the largest number of Jewish immigrants, 225, flowed into Palestine. Between 1940 and 1947, more than 93 Jews flowed into Palestine. Thus, between 1932 and 1947, Palestine received approximately 318 Jews, and from 1948 until 2023, more than 3.3 million Jews have flowed into Palestine.
Despite the displacement of 957 Palestinians in 1948, and more than 200 Palestinians after the June 1967 war, the estimated population of the State of Palestine reached approximately 5.5 million Palestinians in mid-2025 (3.4 million in the West Bank and 2.1 million in the Gaza Strip [their estimated number decreased as a result of the aggression since October 2023 by 10% compared to the previous estimate for 2025). Based on population estimates prepared by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are 15.2 million Palestinians in the world in mid-2025, more than half of whom reside outside historic Palestine (7.8 million; including 6.5 million in Arab countries), while approximately 7.4 million Palestinians reside in historic Palestine. In contrast, there are also approximately 7.4 million Jews, according to estimates by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. Thus, the number of Palestinians and Israelis in historic Palestine is equal in mid-2025.
The number of Palestinian and Arab martyrs since the Nakba in 1948 until today (inside and outside Palestine) has exceeded 154 thousand martyrs. The number of martyrs since the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 until 08/05/2025 has reached about 64,500 martyrs. There are also more than 52,600 martyrs during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip from October 2023, 08 until 05/2025/34 (constituting more than 18% of the total number of martyrs since the Nakba), including more than 12 thousand children, more than 211 thousand women, and 11 journalists. More than 125 thousand citizens are considered missing, most of them women and children, in addition to more than 964 thousand wounded, according to medical sources. As for the West Bank, 2023 martyrs have been killed there since the start of the Israeli occupation's aggression on October XNUMX, XNUMX.
The residents of the Gaza Strip have been forced to flee their homes repeatedly under duress, losing their homes and becoming homeless in tents and schools, trapped between the walls of poverty and war. An estimated two million Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, out of a total of 2.2 million Palestinians who lived in the Strip on the eve of the Israeli occupation's aggression. Yet they have not been spared the bombardment.
Since March 57, the Israeli occupation has reimposed its blockade on the Gaza Strip, with profound consequences, placing more than two million Palestinians in the Strip at risk of starvation, including more than one million children of all ages who suffer from daily hunger. Approximately 65 children have been killed due to starvation, and approximately 335 people have suffered from severe malnutrition and have been transferred to the remaining destroyed hospitals and medical centers in the Strip. Furthermore, 92 children under the age of five—representing all children in Gaza in this age group—are on the brink of death due to the severe malnutrition their mothers face. Approximately 6% of infants between the ages of XNUMX months and XNUMX years, along with their mothers, do not receive the minimum basic nutritional needs, exposing them to serious health risks that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.
Due to the extensive damage to the water and sanitation sectors, water supply rates have declined to an average of 3-5 liters per person per day, varying significantly by geographic location due to the destruction of infrastructure and ongoing displacement. This rate is below the minimum level required for survival in emergencies, according to the World Health Organization's indicators, estimated at 15 liters per person per day. This is primarily due to damage to infrastructure, the complete power outage necessary for pumping water from wells and operating related water facilities such as reservoirs and pumping stations, and restrictions on the provision of fuel and materials necessary for their operation.
Since the Israeli occupation's aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 2023, 68,900, the Israeli occupation has destroyed more than 110 buildings, and about 330 buildings have been severely damaged, while the number of housing units that have been completely or partially destroyed is estimated at more than 70 housing units, which together constitute more than 500% of the housing units in the Gaza Strip, in addition to the destruction of schools and universities (more than 828 schools and universities), hospitals and mosques (3), churches (224), government headquarters (XNUMX), thousands of economic facilities, and the destruction of all aspects of infrastructure, including streets, water and electricity lines, sewage lines, and agricultural lands, making the Gaza Strip an uninhabitable place.
In the West Bank, the Israeli occupation has completely or partially demolished more than 651 buildings since the beginning of the year until the end of March. In addition, it has issued hundreds of demolition orders against Palestinian facilities under the pretext of lacking permits. The Israeli occupation authorities are also demolishing dozens of buildings in Palestinian camps, displacing tens of thousands of their residents as part of its policy of displacing the Palestinian people.
By the end of 2024, the number of Israeli colonial sites and military bases in the West Bank reached 551, distributed as follows: 151 settlements and 256 colonial outposts, including 29 populated outposts that were considered neighborhoods of existing settlements, and 144 other classified sites, including industrial, tourist, and service areas, as well as occupation army camps.
The year 2024 witnessed a significant increase in the pace of Israeli settlement construction and expansion, with the occupation authorities approving numerous colonial master plans to build more than 13 settlement units throughout the West Bank, including Jerusalem, by seizing approximately 11,888 dunams of Palestinian land.
As for the number of settlers in the West Bank, it reached 770,420 settlers by the end of 2023. Data indicates that most settlers reside in the Jerusalem Governorate, with 336,304 settlers (constituting 43.7% of the total settler population), including 240,516 settlers in Area J1 (which includes the part of the Jerusalem Governorate that Israel forcibly annexed following its occupation of the West Bank in 1967). This is followed by the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, with 154,224 settlers, 107,068 settlers in the Bethlehem Governorate, and 56,777 settlers in the Salfit Governorate. The governorates with the fewest settlers are Tubas and the Northern Jordan Valley Governorate, with 3,004 settlers. The ratio of settlers to Palestinians in the West Bank is approximately 23.4 settlers per 100 Palestinians, while the highest ratio is in the Jerusalem Governorate, at approximately 67.6 settlers per 100 Palestinians.
The Israeli occupation continues to impose its control over more Palestinian lands in the West Bank, under various pretexts and names. During 2024, it seized more than 46,000 dunams. Data indicates that during 2024, 35 seizure orders were issued for approximately 1,073 dunams, five expropriation orders for approximately 803 dunams, and nine orders declaring approximately 9 dunams as state land. In addition, six orders were issued to modify the boundaries of nature reserves. Through these orders, the occupation also seized approximately 24,597 dunams. This is part of a systematic and ongoing policy to control all Palestinian lands and deprive them of the exploitation of their natural resources, as part of the annexation policy pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank.
The Israeli occupation authorities and settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation army, carried out 16,612 attacks against Palestinian citizens and their property during 2024. These attacks included 4,538 attacks on property and religious sites, 774 attacks on land and natural resources, and 11,330 attacks on individuals. These attacks also resulted in the uprooting, damage, and destruction of more than 14,212 trees, including 10,459 olive trees. During the first three months of this year, more than 5,470 attacks by the Israeli occupation authorities and settlers against citizens, property, and religious sites were documented. This is in addition to the arbitrary measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities, including the deployment of checkpoints and gates at the entrances to most Palestinian communities, which number approximately 900, hindering the movement of citizens between Palestinian communities and cities.
(is over)
