Detailed statistics on Palestinian casualties in Syria from the beginning of the conflict until the end of January 2013.
Palestinian refugees first came to Syria in 1948, after being forced from their homes due to numerous massacres carried out against them by Zionist gangs, which brought around 80,000 Palestinian refugees to Syria. Today, 64 years after their ‘Nakba’ (catastrophe), Syria’s Palestinian refugees number around 510,444, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) figures from 1st January 2012.
Palestinian-Syrian refugees live in nine camps which are recognised by UNRWA, and three which are not recognised. The Syrian government provides basic services to all these camps, i.e. water, electricity and sanitation, with UNRWA’s responsibilities in the camps limited to providing services and running its facilities. It’s worth noting that UNRWA does not and is unable to ensure security in the camps, a responsibility which falls to the Syrian government.
UNRWA has an office in every camp where camp residents can go to register new births, or to raise issues to do with the agency’s services with the director of that office, whose role it is to refer the requests of refugees and matters concerning them to the agency’s administration in that camp’s local area.
After taking refuge in Syria in 1948, Palestinians in Syria lived in some kind of stability for 62 years (that is, before the start of the conflict in Syria) and, save for the right to stand for political position or vote, were treated like Syrian citizens in terms of their rights and responsibilities. They never imagined their circumstances would be transformed the way they have in the recent period.
The Palestinian refugees have suffered since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, moving from their temporary phase of stability to a phase of turmoil, with some being forcibly displaced more than once to various places of greater safety than the camps, especially in the later months of the conflict.
As 2012 draws to a close, the number of Palestinians casualties in Syria continues to rise, with the increase accelerating at a worrying rate, especially in the past three months. In December 2012 alone, there were around 145 recorded Palestinian casualties.
This is the fate of Palestinian refugees in most of the Arab crises; they are always affected by them even if they are not involved in them. Their story is full of suffering, from Lebanon to Jordan, from Kuwait to Iraq.
It seems that a new crisis has been added to the history of the Palestinian refugees, this time in Syria, where they are suffering greatly because of the conflict, despite deciding to take a neutral position. The approximately half a million Palestinian refugees in Syria, some of them living in camps and others in different places in Syrian cities, have endured many sacrifices and casualties.
Like their Syrian brothers and sisters, the Palestinian refugees have paid a great price in the on-going conflict in Syria. According to the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria, the number of recorded Palestinian casualties in Syria up until 31st January 2013 was 851. The group is recording the names of the Palestinians killed in Syria, as well as the circumstances, date and places of their deaths.
Almost half of Palestinian casualties in Syria were in Damascus
The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria has found that 477 of the 960 Palestinian casualties were killed in Damascus:
• 212 in the outskirts of Damascus
• Around 104 in Dara’a
• 45 in Aleppo
• 27 in Homs
• 27 in Quneitra - most of the casualties in Quneitra were killed during the Nakba (catastrophe) and Naksa (commemoration of the 1967 war) protests on the Syrian border in the area of Ain Al-Tina.
• 19 in Latakia
• 19 from the Palestinian camps in Aleppo, most of whom were killed in the city of Idlib while carrying out compulsory military service in the Palestinian Liberation Army. They were executed in a horrific massacre on 11th July 2012.
• 16 in Hama
• 8 in miscellaneous locations in Syria
More than 64 % of Palestinian casualties were killed in the
Palestinian camps or gatherings
There have been a total of 960 Palestinian casualties, both inside and outside the Palestinian camps in Syria, so there is no guarantee of safety for Palestinians either inside the camps or out. The proportion of casualties inside the Palestinian camps in Syria was 64% of the total, while the proportion of Palestinian casualties outside the camps was 36%. It’s worth noting that many of the Palestinian casualties whose deaths were recorded outside the Palestinian camps were actually from the camps, but were killed while outside the camps due to their work, study or compulsory military service in the Palestinian Liberation Army.
358 casualties in Yarmouk camp
It is important to recognise that none of the Palestinians camps are totally isolated from the surrounding areas, and the boundaries between the camps and the surrounding areas are often blurred. This section discusses the Palestinian casualties who died inside the camps as a result of the camps being directly targeted. The Palestinian camps in Syria have suffered 612 casualties, most of them in Yarmouk camp. Yarmouk camp has seen all the areas around it descend into violence, from Al-Midan to Al-Hajr Al-Aswad to Tadamun.
• 358 recorded casualties in Yarmouk, which has repeatedly experienced heavy and direct shelling, causing tens of victims each time.
• 70 casualties in Dara’a camp in the South of Syria
• 3 in the town of Al-Mzereeb
• 61 in Al-Hissaniyya camp has suffered 38 casualties,
• 4 in the nearby town of Al-Deyabiyya
• 2 in Jeramana camp
• 1 in Khan-Danoon camp
• 23 in Al-Sayida Zainab camp
• 27 in Al-Sbeena camp, as a result of violent clashes in Al-Deyabiyya, Al-Sayida Zainab and the surrounding areas.
• 8 in Khan Al-Sheeh camp as a result of clashes in the nearby area
• 1 in Rukn Al-Deen
• Several casualties in the camps in the north as a result of heavy shelling of the Syrian cities there: 20 in Al-Nayrab camp in Aleppo, 11 in Hama camp, 9 in Homs camp, 6 in Al-Raml camp in Latakia and 8 in Handarat camp.
96 Palestinian casualties killed in Damascus outside the camps, among them 32 casualties in Al-Hajr Al-Aswad
Those following the situation of Palestinian refugees in Syria will have observed that Palestinian refugees have been killed throughout Damascus:
• 11 have been killed in the heart of Damascus
• 32 in Al-Hajr Al-Aswad
• 18 in Tadamun
• 6 in Yalda
• 4 in Zamalkah
• 3 in Al-Qaboon
• 2 in Mezzeh
• 2 in Barzeh
• 2 in Sahya
• 2 in Kafr Souseh
• 2 in Jobar
• 2 in Esh Al-warwar
• 1 on the airport road
• 1 in Rukn Al-Deen
• 1 in Hosh Blas
• 1 in Al-Midan
• 1 in Al-Qadam
• 1 in Al-Zahera
• 1 in Al-Senaa
• 1 in Dumar
• 1 in Daraa roud
212 casualties in the outskirts of Damascus, the second highest proportion of Palestinian casualties in Syria
There have been 179 Palestinian casualties in various areas in the outskirts of Damascus:
• 40 in Douma
• 61 in Al-Hissaniyya
• 27 in Al-Sbeena
• 14 in Al-Mu’adamiyya
• 8 in Khan Al-Sheeh camp
• 6 in Qudsayya
• 5 in ‘Artooz
• 5 in Hajeera
• 5 in Bait Sahm
• 4 in Qatna
• 4 in Deir Al-‘Asafeer
• 4 in Al-Deyabiyya
• 4 in Gdaidat Artooz
• 3 in Sahnaya
• 2 in Jeramana
• 2 in ‘Adra
• 2 in Al-Buwwaida
• 2 in ‘Arbeen
• 1 in Khan Danoon camp
• 1 in Kafarbatna
• 1 in Saqba
• 1 in Al-Zabadani
• 1 in Droosha
• 1 in Daraya
• 1 in Harasta
• 1 in Bebeela
• 1 in Al-Nabik
• 1 in Al-Dmeer
• 1 in Al-Saboora
• 1 in Al-Tal
• 1 in Al-Ghota
• 1 in Al-Mleha
45 Palestinian casualties in Aleppo
Aleppo has experienced violence shelling and widespread military operations, and there have been 37 Palestinian refugees among the casualties:
• 20 in Al-Nayrab camp
• 8 in Handarat camp
• 12 in Aleppo city itself
• 1 in Salah Al-Din
• 2 in Hanano
• 1 in Ain Al-Tal
• 1 in Rikarda
32 Palestinian casualties in Homs
The city of Homs has suffered heavy shelling and a severe siege, both of which have affected the Palestinians there. There have been a total of 31 Palestinian casualties in Homs:
• 9 in Homs camp
• 21 in the town itself
• 1 in Tal Al-Shoor
• 1 in Talbeesa
19 Palestinian casualties in Latakia
The Palestinian refugees in Latakia have suffered 19 casualties, 6 of them in Al-Raml camp.
16 Palestinian casualties in Hama
The Palestinian refugees in Hama have suffered 16 casualties, 11 of them in Hama camp and 5 in the town itself.
The main causes of death of the Palestinian refugees in Syria
960 Palestinians have been killed in Syria, subjected to the most horrific kind of death Some were killed in cold blood by snipers, such as Sami Abu Halal, who was shot dead on 9th September 2012 at the Palestine roundabout (‘Dawar Filistin’) by a sniper ‘monitoring’ the street there.
Others were killed during shelling of the camps, such as the young girl Alaa’ Al-Khasri, who was killed during shelling that targeted a bus travelling through Yarmouk camp on 5 May 2012.
Among those killed by summary execution, as was Basel Bastooni, executed in Al-Tadamun on 9th September 2012.
Some were assassinated, like Misaa Salih Abu Bakar, who was shot dead in front of her two children with a pistol fixed with a silencer in Mezzah , on 19th November 2012.
Even more horrific are those who have had their throats cut, among them Ahmed Mahmood Qasimiyya, who was slaughtered in Homs on 23rd March 2012.
Others died under torture, like Mohammed Mahmood Khaleel, tortured to death in Latakia on 13th May 2012.
