IMEU Institute for Middle East Understanding
“I had a homework assignment to do so I brought my books,” she says. It was 1948 and the newly declared state of Israel was at war with its neighbors. Aboud’s father thought it was better to head north for a few days and wait for the fighting to blow over. She was 9. The family crossed into Syria and waited.
on January 4, 2016
“UNRWA is shocked by the upsurge in violence that has affected Palestinian and Israeli civilians and the pattern of deadly force against Palestinians,” says commissioner-general. “Palestinian refugees today feel more left behind” than ever, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said on Tuesday.
on November 10, 2015
As the train packed with refugees left Budapest's Keleti station in the direction of Austria, only one family remained on the platform. "We couldn't buy tickets because we don't have any money, armed thieves took everything from us," said Tarek al-Hajj Khalil, a Palestinian from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria.
on September 13, 2015
The U.N. Security Council is calling for $30 million in emergency aid to help Palestinian refugees in the embattled Yarmouk camp in the Syrian capital. The council called for unhindered humanitarian access and protection of civilians inside the U.N. camp, now mainly controlled by Islamic State militants following heavy fighting this month.
on April 20, 2015
For weeks, Islamic State militants, aided by Al Nusra Front, waged a street war in Syria's Yarmouk refugee camp against Aknaf Beit al-Maqdis, an anti-government battalion. Snipers targeted anything that moved. The Syrian government also launched aerial attacks targeting civilian areas, including dropping about 50 barrel bombs, two of them on Palestinian Hospital this month.
on April 17, 2015
Fact Sheets
The IMEU offers the following fact sheet on the plight of Palestinian refugees and Syrians living in the Yarmouk refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, which has been overrun by fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) over the past week.
on April 7, 2015
There is a piano that continues to survive alongside the Palestinians in besieged Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus. Earlier this year the piano appeared in the [enclosed] YouTube video; it was the first time I learned of its existence. A favorite musical instrument, my ears were absorbed and my eyes followed each stroke of its keys.
on October 14, 2014