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PALESTINIAN
REFUGEE CRISIS  

Pelestinian Crisis

AT A GLANCE

WHO

3 million children internally displaced within the Palestinian territories and tens of thousands of Israeli children

WHY

Complex conflict between Israel and Palestine over territory

NEEDS

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Food

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Water

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Medical Care

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Education

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Child Safe Spaces

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Shelter

THE CAUSE

Millions of Palestinian children are displaced and in need of immediate and sustained aid due to a complex history of land claims, regional conflict and war.

On November 29, 1947 the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948, when the British mandate was scheduled to end. The region’s Jewish minority had held continuous, historical native roots there. However, during the establishment of Israel three quarters of all Palestinians (the region’s native majority since medieval times) were violently expelled from their ancestral homeland by the new Israeli army, and were victims of human rights violations and racism. The Palestinian Authority resisted Israel’s establishment, retaining partial civil control of small Israel-occupied regions: the West Bank and Gaza. However, Israel continued to impose crippling sanctions on Palestinians and the relationship between the two remained fraught with conflict. In the mid 2000s a Palestinian radical militant group, Hamas, considered a terrorist organization in many countries, took complete control of Gaza, and has since committed severe crimes against Israeli civilians. After a brutal attack by Hamas forces on October 7, 2023 the resulting war between Hamas and Israeli forces severely exacerbated the Palestinian refugee crisis: 80% of Gaza’s population, half of whom are children, were internally displaced. Many were already refugees. Tens of thousands of Israeli children were also displaced.

IMPACT ON CHILDREN

In December 2023 UNICEF described Gaza as “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.”

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Since 1948, millions of Palestinians have been either internally displaced or scattered across the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as stateless refugees, relying entirely on humanitarian aid to care for their children.

Israel’s highly controversial military strategy to defeat Hamas in Gaza involves bombing of civilian infrastructure, including densely-populated refugee camps, and a total blockade of the territory.

 

As of May 2024, innocent children in Gaza are under inescapable bombardments and repeated displacement. They suffer from malnutrition, disease, poorly-treated war injuries and severe psychological trauma, and are in immediate need of humanitarian aid and sustained safe spaces. Indicative of the larger catastrophe facing the children of Gaza right now is the acronym circulating in the few remaining, barely functional, hospitals there: “WCNSF”. It stands for Wounded Child, No Surviving Family.

THE CRISIS TODAY

Aid groups like Save the Children and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are working to provide essential care to the roughly 3 million displaced Palestinians children across Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel-occupied territories. Inside Israel, organizations like the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Jewish Agency for Israel, Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and others are providing critical resources for Israeli children displaced since October 7, 2023. In Gaza, Israel’s current blockade has left one million children trapped in a deadly war zone with no safe spaces and extremely limited access to aid. In response to looming famine and in spite of the danger, World Central Kitchen rushes to provide as many critical meals to families as possible. In neighboring Syria, Palestinian children whose families had fled to Syria in previous years find themselves, to this day, caught in the crossfires of the 2011 Syrian Civil War. Thankfully, organizations like the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) provide Palestinian refugees with essential services such as education, health care, psychosocial support and emergency food assistance.

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