Action Group | Syria
As Palestinians around the world mark the 77th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba, Palestinians in Syria face a scene no less painful than their original displacement. In a year that witnessed the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule, Palestinian refugees in Syria are reliving renewed anguish. They endured a second Nakba at the hands of a regime that spared them no brutality””arresting, killing, and destroying their camps just as it did across much of Syria.
The Nakba has always been an open wound in Palestinian memory. However, the past years””especially since the outbreak of the Syrian war in 2011””have deepened the tragedy. Thousands of Palestinians in Syria paid the price for a conflict they were not party to, finding themselves at the heart of catastrophe. Human rights reports indicate that the now-defunct Syrian regime arbitrarily detained thousands of Palestinians, subjecting many to torture and mistreatment. Hundreds perished under torture in Syrian prisons, according to documentation by human rights bodies such as the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria.
Palestinian camps in Syria did not escape the devastation. Yarmouk Camp””once known as the “Capital of the Palestinian Diaspora”””was reduced to rubble after years of siege, bombardment, and fierce battles that forced its remaining residents to flee. The same fate befell the camps of Daraa, Khan al-Sheih, Homs, and Handarat in Aleppo, driving thousands of families to flee internally or seek refuge in neighboring countries and beyond.
This anniversary evokes not only longing for the homes lost in 1948 but also for the camps that once served as havens after the Nakba””now themselves consumed by war. Each year, the symbolic keys to lost homes are raised to affirm the right of return. Today, Palestinians from Syria carry keys to homes destroyed twice over, bearing a compounded sense of loss.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the Nakba displaced approximately 950,000 Palestinians out of 1.4 million who lived in 1,300 towns and villages. A total of 774 localities were destroyed and replaced by 531 Israeli settlements. Since then, the Palestinian population has grown to around 13 million, with nearly 6 million living as refugees in Arab countries””many in dire conditions, particularly in Syria’s devastated camps.
Today, around 5 million Palestinians reside in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and about 1.6 million in the 1948 territories, while the rest are scattered across the diaspora. Among them, Palestinians from Syria remain one of the most marginalized and suffering communities. Ongoing economic hardship, societal fragmentation, and the absence of political solutions continue to push many of their youth toward emigration in search of an alternative homeland.
The Nakba, therefore, was not merely a historical event but an ongoing reality, reproduced in various forms. Today, on its 77th anniversary, Palestinians from Syria are not just commemorating the Nakba””they are living it in full, in a present still lacking justice, and a future suspended between ruins and exile.