Number of Palestinians has increased 10-fold since 1948 Nakba

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported yesterday that the number of Palestinians in the country and diaspora has increased about ten-fold since the Nakba of 1948. The agency explained, in a statement, that “despite the displacement of about one million Palestinians in 1948 and more than 200,000 Palestinians after the June War in 1967, the total number of Palestinians in the world reached 14.63 million people at the end of 2023.”

During this time, it noted that “the Israeli occupation has seized more than 85 per cent of the total area of historic Palestine.”

As Palestinians prepare to mark 67 years since the Nakba on Wednesday, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics stated that 5.55 million Palestinians reside in the State of Palestine – the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip; about 1.75 million Palestinians live in Israel; 6.56 million across Arab states and 772,000 Palestinians live in foreign countries. Thus, the number of Palestinians in historic Palestine reached about 7.3 million.

It explained that “Out of the 1.4 million Palestinians who resided in historic Palestine in 1948, more than a million Palestinians were displaced” pointing out that in 1948 the Israeli occupation took control of 774 Palestinian villages and cities, 531 of which were completely destroyed, and the remaining villages and cities were “subjected to the occupation state and its laws.”

The Palestinian bureau added that this “ethnic cleansing operation” came at a time when “Zionist gangs committed more than 70 massacres against Palestinians, leading to the martyrdom of more than 15,000 Palestinians.”

“More than 134,000 [Palestinians] were martyred in defence of Palestinian rights since the Nakba of 1948,” it said, adding that the number of martyrs from the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 until 30 April 2024, reached about 46,500.

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