Dr. Ola Awad, reviews the conditions of the Palestinian people via statistical figures and findings, on the 77th Annual Commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba.
Dr. Ola Awad, President of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), via figures, historical and current data, reviewed the geographical,demographical and economic situation of the Palestinian People on the 77th Annual Commemoration of the Palestinian Nakba, which occur takes place on May, 15th
The Nakba: Continuous Ethnic cleansing, displacement of the Palestinians, colonialism, and taking over the Palestinian Lands. Nakba in Palestine describes a process of ethnic cleansing in which an unarmed native nation was destroyed. The Nakba resulted in the displacement of 957 thousand Palestinians out of the 1.4 million Palestinians who were living in 1,300 villages and towns. The majority of the displaced Palestinians ended up in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and neighboring Arab countries. Furthermore, thousands of Palestinians – who stayed in the land controlled by the Israeli occupation in 1948 – were driven out of their homes and lands that were seized.
According to the historical documentary evidence, the Israeli occupation controlled 774 towns and villages and destroyed 531 Palestinian towns and villages during the Nakba. The atrocities of Zionist forces also included more than 70 massacres in which more than 15 thousand Palestinians were martyred. The Israeli occupation has been waging its aggression since the Nakba, and has escalated it sharply during the current aggression against Gaza Strip and the West Bank since October 7th, 2023.
Demographic Reality: 77 years after the Nakba, a tenfold increase in the Palestinian population
The population of historic Palestine in 1914 was approximately 690 thousand, of whom Jews constituted only 8%. In 1948, the population exceeded 2 million, approximately 31.5% of whom were Jews. The largest influx of Jewish immigrants, 225 thousand, occurred between 1932 and 1939. Between 1940 and 1947, more than 93 thousand Jews arrived in Palestine. Thus, between 1932 and 1947, Palestine forcibly received approximately 318 thousand Jews, and from 1948 until 2023, more than 3.3 million Jews have arrived.
Despite the displacement of 957 thousand Palestinians in 1948 and more than 200 thousand Palestinians after the war of June 1967, the estimated population of the State of Palestine reached approximately 5.5 million Palestinians by mid-2025 ((3.4 million in the West Bank and 2.1 million in Gaza Strip (a 10% decrease compared to the population estimates for Gaza Strip for 2025)). Based on revised population estimates prepared by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there were 15.2 million Palestinians in the world by mid-2025, more than half of whom were outside historic Palestine (7.8 million, of them 6.5 million in Arab countries). Their number reached approximately 7.4 million Palestinians in historic Palestine, while the number of Israelis reached 7.4 million, according to estimates by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. Thus, the number of Palestinians and Israelis in historic Palestine was equal by mid-2025.
More than 154 Thousand Martyrs since the Nakba, 1948
The number of the Palestinian and Arab martyrs killed since the Nakba in 1948 and until this day (inside and outside Palestine) reached more than 154 thousand martyrs . Moreover, the number of martyrs killed in Al-Aqsa Intifada during September 29th, 2000 – May 08th, 2025 was about 64.5 thousand. The number of martyrs in Palestine since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression against Gaza Strip during October 7th, 2023 – May 08th, 2025 reached more than 52.6 thousand martyrs; more than 18 thousand children and more than 12 thousand women, in addition to more than 211 journalists were martyred (representing 34% of the total number of martyrs since the Nakba). In addition, there were more than 125 thousand wounded individuals according to the records of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza Strip. In addition, more than 11 thousand citizens, most of whom were women and children, were gone missing. While the number of martyrs reached 964 in the West Bank since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression on October 7th, 2023.
Two million Palestinians were displaced in Gaza Strip, far from their homes
Residents of Gaza have been repeatedly forced to flee their homes under duress, losing their homes and becoming homeless in tents and schools, trapped between walls of poverty and war. Out of approximately 2.2 million Palestinians who lived in Gaza Strip on the eve of the Israeli occupation aggression, about two million have been displaced from their homes; however, they have not been spared the bombardment.
Hunger and thirst are ravaging the besieged Gaza Strip
Since March2025, the Israeli occupation has reimposed its siege on Gaza Strip, with devastating consequences. More than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza Strip are at risk of starvation, including more than 1 million children of all ages who suffer from daily hunger, about 57 children died to famine and about 65 thousand people have suffered from severe malnutrition and have been transferred to the remaining yet destroyed hospitals and medical centers in Gaza Strip. 335 thousand children under the age of five—all children in Gaza in this age group—are on the brink of death due to the severe malnutrition they and their mothers face. Approximately 92% of infants between 6 months and 2 years of age, 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 incurred by the water and sanitation sector, water supply rates have declined to an average of 3-5 liters per person per day, varying significantly according to geographic location, water supply, damage to infrastructure, and ongoing displacement. Thus, the per capita share of water in Gaza does not exceed half of the estimated minimum humanitarian requirement in emergent situations, which is 15 liters per person per day. This is mainly due to the damage made to the infrastructure, the complete power outage needed to pump water from wells and operate related water facilities such as tanks and pumping stations, and the restrictions imposed on the provision of fuel and materials necessary for their operation.
More than 70% of the housing units in Gaza Strip are uninhabitable
Sincethe Israeli occupation aggression against Gaza Strip on October 7th, 2023, the Israeli occupation has destroyed more than 68.9 thousand buildings, more than 110 thousand severely damaged buildings, while data show that the number of housing units that have been completely or partially destroyed is estimated to be more than 330 thousand, constituting more than 70% of the total number of housing units in Gaza Strip, in addition to the destruction of schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, churches, and government headquarters, as well as the destruction of thousands of economic establishments and most of the agricultural areas, making Gaza Strip an uninhabitable place to survive.
Numbers of damaged buildings in Gaza Strip since October 7th, 2023, by type of building and type of damage
Type of Damage Type of Building
Partially Damaged Completely Damaged
110,500 68,918 Buildings
364 142 Schools & Universities
828 Mosques
3 Churches
224 Government Headquarters
Since the beginning of 2025, the Israeli occupation authorities have been demolishing 651 buildings. They have also issued hundreds of demolition orders against Palestinian facilities under the pretext of lacking permits. The Israeli occupation authorities are demolishing dozens of buildings in Palestinian camps, displacing tens of thousands of their residents as part of the policy of displacing the Palestinian people.
Israeli Settlements: Continuous Expansion
By the end of 2024, there were 551 Israeli occupation sites and military bases in the West Bank, including 151 settlements and 256 settlement outposts, of them 29 inhabited outposts that were considered as neighborhoods following established settlements, in addition to 144 classified as other sites (industrial, tourists, service areas and Israeli army bases). In 2024, there was a significant increase in the pace of construction and expansion of the Israeli settlements, as the occupation authorities approved several colonial master plans to build more than 13,000 housing units throughout the West Bank, including Jerusalem, by seizing approximately 11,888 dunums of the Palestinian lands.
As for the number of settlers in the West Bank, it reached 770,420 settlers by the end of 2023. Accordingly, data show that around 43.7% of settlers live in Jerusalem Governorate, where their number reached about 336,304 settlers; out of whom 240,516 settlers live in East Jerusalem (J1) “includes those parts of Jerusalem which were annexed by the Israeli occupation in 1967” followed by Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate with 154,224 settlers, 107,068 settlers in Bethlehem Governorate, and 56,777 settlers in Salfit Governorate. While Tubas & the Northern Valleys Governorate has the lowest number of settlers, reaching 3,004 settlers.
In regards to demographics, the proportion of the settlers to the Palestinian population in the West Bank is about 23.4 settlers per 100 Palestinians. It was the highest in Jerusalem Governorate, where there were 67.6 settlers per 100 Palestinians.
Continuous Confiscation of Land
The Israeli occupation is still imposing its control over more Palestinian lands in the West Bank under various pretexts and names, as the confiscated areas during 2024 reached more than (46 thousand) dunums. During 2024, 35 sequestration orders were issued regarding about 1,073 dunums, 5 expropriation orders for approximately 803 dunums, 9 orders declaring state land for approximately 24,597 dunums, in addition to 6 orders amending the boundaries of natural reserves through which 20 thousand dunums were confiscated. All of such were part of the systematic and ongoing policy to control all Palestinian lands and deprive the Palestinians from exploiting their natural resources within the annexation policy pursued by the Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank.
More than 16thousandattacks by Israeli occupation authorities and settlers
in the West Bank
In 2024, settlers, under the protection and cooperation of the Israeli occupation army, carried out about 16,612 attacks against Palestinian citizens and their property; the attacks included 4,538 attacks on property and religious places, 774 attacks on lands and natural resources, and 11,330 attacks on individuals. These attacks also caused the uprooting, damage, and bulldozing of more than 14,212 trees, including about 10,459 olive trees. During the first three months of this year, more than 5,470 attacks by the Israeli occupation authorities and settlers on citizens, property, and religious sites were documented, in addition to the arbitrary measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities, including the deployment of checkpoints and gates at the entrances of most Palestinian localities, of about 900 checkpoints and gates which impede the free movement of Palestinians between Palestinian localities and cities.
Sources:
1. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 2024: Israeli Settlements in the West Bank 2023. Ramallah – Palestine.
2. Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission 2025, the most prominent violations of the Israeli occupation State and colonizers in the occupied Palestinian territories, annual report, 2023. Ramallah – Palestine.
3. Palestinian Ministry of Health – General Directorate of Emergency, 2025. Annual Report on Israeli occupation attacks, 2024. Ramallah – Palestine.
4. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2024. Revised estimates based on the final results of Population, Housing and Establishments Census 2017. Ramallah-Palestine.
