Date: 20 June 2026
Abu Holi Calls on the International Community to Deliver Long-Overdue Justice, End the Historic Injustice Against Our People, and Confront the Existential Challenges Targeting UNRWA
The destruction of refugee camps in the northern West Bank and the ban on UNRWA's operations constitute an Israeli attempt to undermine the symbolic significance of the camps and erase the right of return.
Our people are facing a war of genocide and a humanitarian and public health catastrophe.
Regional stability depends on ending the occupation and implementing UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
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Member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Head of the Department of Refugee Affairs, Dr. Ahmad Abu Holi, affirmed that the Palestinian refugee issue remains the longest-standing and most profound humanitarian and human rights cause in modern history, noting that our people are entering another year of systematic injustice amid the ongoing genocidal war.
In a press statement issued today, Saturday, on the occasion of World Refugee Day, Abu Holi said that the current situation has gone far beyond the limits of conventional humanitarian disasters, particularly in light of the direct and systematic targeting of the Palestinian presence and its social and physical infrastructure across refugee camps and places of exile.
He added that the refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and those in the northern West Bank are facing an unprecedented chapter of destruction and genocide. In the Gaza Strip, our people continue to endure mass killings and a suffocating blockade that has led to repeated forced displacement affecting nearly 1.9 million Palestinians. Meanwhile, the refugee camps in the northern West Bank—Jenin, Tulkarm, Nur Shams, and Balata—have been subjected to a prolonged military assault for more than a year, resulting in the complete destruction of infrastructure, water networks, and homes, and forcing the displacement of more than 40,000 refugees. This, he said, represents a clear Israeli attempt to undermine the symbolic significance of the refugee camps as living testimony to the right of return.
The Head of the Department of Refugee Affairs reviewed updated figures and statistics through June 2026, noting that more than 171,000 Palestinians have been martyred since the Nakba of 1948, including 74,176 since 7 October 2023. These include 72,996 martyrs in the Gaza Strip and 1,180 in the West Bank, in addition to approximately 11,000 people reported missing beneath the rubble. He also pointed out that the global Palestinian population has reached approximately 15.5 million, with refugees constituting 42% of the population of the State of Palestine. Around 6.2 million Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA and are distributed across 58 official refugee camps.
Regarding the catastrophic internal displacement map in the Gaza Strip, Abu Holi explained that nearly one million people are currently concentrated across 862 scattered and makeshift displacement sites. Khan Younis hosts the largest concentration, with approximately 391,000 displaced persons in 214 sites, followed by Deir al-Balah in the Central Governorate, where around 96,000 displaced persons are sheltering in 94 sites. Gaza City and the northern governorates accommodate approximately 25,000 displaced families in temporary and heavily damaged facilities, while the displaced population in Rafah has declined to around 500 families confined to besieged and isolated areas.
He continued that living conditions in the refugee camps and displacement sites have become a genuine threat to life due to the deliberate destruction by the occupying power of 90% of water and sewage networks, resulting in the alarming spread of epidemics, skin diseases, and viral hepatitis. This has coincided with severe famine and ongoing attacks that have forced 90% of the displaced population to depend entirely on the reduced humanitarian assistance provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Abu Holi warned of the existential challenges currently facing both the refugees and the Agency as a result of Israel's direct targeting of UNRWA's legal legitimacy through attempts to completely ban its operations, bombard its official premises and schools sheltering displaced persons, and exert international political pressure to dry up its funding sources. These efforts, he said, are aimed at terminating the Agency's international mandate established under UN General Assembly Resolution 302 as part of attempts to liquidate the Palestinian refugee issue and eliminate its international witness.
Abu Holi called on the international community, United Nations institutions, and influential global actors to take immediate and serious action to end the historic injustice inflicted upon the Palestinian people, deliver the long-overdue justice denied for 78 years of refugeehood and the ongoing Nakba, and provide UNRWA with the financial and political support necessary to ensure the continuity of its life-saving services for millions of Palestine refugees. He stressed that security and stability in the region can only be achieved through an immediate end to the genocidal war, the end of the occupation, the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital, and the implementation of the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homes from which they were displaced, as well as their right to compensation, in accordance with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.
