May 15 (Reuters) - Israeli fire killed several people on Sunday during protests marking what Palestinians call the "Nakba", or catastrophe, of Israel's founding in a 1948 war, when hundreds of their brethren fled or were forced from their homes.
Following are U.N. statistics on Palestinian refugees :
-- According to its website, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East provides assistance, protection and advocacy for some 4.8 million Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory.
-- Under UNRWA's definition, Palestinian refugees are people whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.
-- When the agency began its work in 1950, it was responding to the needs of some 750,000 Palestinian refugees.
-- UNRWA breaks down the number of registered Palestinian refugees as follows (as of 30 June 2010):
Jordan - 2 million
Lebanon - 427,057
Syria - 477,700
West Bank - 788,108
Gaza Strip - 1.1 million
-- United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, passed in December 1948, says "all refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date".
-- Israeli leaders have said a solution for Palestinian refugees should be found within the borders of any future Palestinian state and have rejected their wholesale return to homes now inside Israel. (Writing by Jeffrey Heller)
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