List of estimates of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight

No-one knows exactly how many Palestinians became refugees during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war , but estimates generally place the number between half a million and a million. These estimates calculate the number by attempting to estimate the number of non-Jews in (what would become) Israel before the start of hostilities, and subtracting the number of non-Jews left in Israel after the end of hostilities. Confounding these estimates is the fact that tens of thousands of non-Jews both left and entered Israel following the cessation of hostilities. Discussions or estimates of the number of Palestinian refugees typically fail to differentiate between number of non- Jews who left the areas eventually controlled by Israel , and the number of people who were actually registered as refugees. The latter numbers have always been considerably higher than the former; the United Nations has attributed this difference to a number of factors, initially to "duplication of ration cards, addition of persons who have been displaced from area other than Israel-held areas and of persons who, although not displaced, are destitute", [1] and in subsequent years to the fact that "all births are eagerly announced, the deaths wherever possible are passed over in silence" and a birthrate that was "high in any case", contributing to "a net addition of 30,000 names a year." [2] According the U.N., the refugee lists also contained "many false and duplicate registrations." [3] . The only refugees registered by the UN, however, were those eligible for relief services (provided by what eventually became the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [4] ]) in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Those that fled further afield in 1948, or who were subsequently born outside of these areas, are not eligible for UNRWA registration, and hence are not counted in UN refugee totals. [5] This article lists the various U.N. estimates for the numbers of people who fled or left the area captured by Israel (both final and interim estimates), as well as the number of people who registered as refugees. As well, it provides a nearly exhaustive list of other final and interim estimates of Palestinian refugees available from the internet, and a small number of estimates from other sources.¹