Palestinians in Syria

Most Palestinian refugees in Syria fled there in 1948 from northern Palestine districts, Safad, Haifa, Jaffa, Acre, Tiberias, and Nazareth.

By the summer of 1948, there were about 70,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria, the majority concentrated along the border area with Israel.

The refugees were initially housed in deserted military barracks in As-Suwayda, Aleppo, Homs, and Hama.

GAPAR, with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), jointly administer the camps.

UNRWA was established by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 IV of 8 December 1949 to carry out relief programs for Palestinian Refugees.

[6] According to author Laurie Brand, the full initial influx of Palestinians was substantial (90,000–100,000), and the government, through a series of laws, gradually paved the way for their integration into the Syrian socioeconomic structure while preserving their separate Palestinian identity.

[6] In 1967, Palestinian refugees fled the Quneitra Governorate in the Golan Heights, and around 4,200 of them were housed in Daraa Emergency Camp.

Their propensity to fleeing includes having been under siege in refugee camps, while many have opted to make the dangerous journey to Europe as conditions remain hostile to Palestinians in neighboring Middle Eastern states.

[9] According to UNRWA, more than half a million Palestinians resided in refugee camps in Syria before the war started.

The Geneva-based organization reported that more than 160,000 Palestinian Syrian refugees had left their camps in Syria, migrating to neighboring or countries of the European Union.

"Only in very limited circumstances, such as the absence or statelessness of a father, could the mother grant her child Syrian citizenship.