THE REFUGEES AFTER THE WAR
What happened to the Palestinian refugees after the war, and where they went, is important to understanding where they are located today and the kinds of conditions they face. The expulsions meant that there was a mass, multi-directional movement of Palestinians. They not only fled to other parts of historic Palestine, such as the Gaza Strip, Bethlehem, Nablus and Jaffa; they also fled to surrounding countries, such as Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and even Iraq.
SYRIA
LEBANON
IRAQ
JORDAN
EGYPT
The Palestinian people, in other words, were now overwhelmingly fragmented and separated from each other, most of them now living in dozens of refugee camps spread across multiple locations and countries. This colonial dislocation meant the geographical breakup of the Palestinians as a national group. In order to quickly respond to the needs of these refugees in their various locations, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, also known as UNRWA, was established in December 1949. UNRWA was established as a relief and development body tasked with taking care of the needs of the Palestinian refugee community, including the provision of healthcare and education services, until a just solution for the refugees could be reached. Many UNRWA camps were set up almost immediately after 1948, and there are around 60 official UNRWA camps today, with varying conditions and levels of development.
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