Palestinian Population Tops 15.5 Million

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said Tuesday that the number of Palestinians worldwide has reached about 15.5 million, including 7.4 million living in historic Palestine.

In a statement marking the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, a term used by Palestinians to mark Israel’s creation in 1948, the bureau said about 8.1 million Palestinians live in the diaspora.

It said more than two million Palestinians are displaced inside Gaza and the occupied West Bank as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza and continued settlement expansion.

Israel’s war on Gaza has displaced nearly two million Palestinians out of about 2.2 million who lived in the enclave on the eve of the war, the bureau said. Many now live in tents, shelters and schools.

About 40,000 Palestinians have also been displaced from refugee camps in the northern West Bank because of the ongoing Israeli military operations, the bureau added.

In the West Bank, illegal Israeli settlement activity continues to expand, the statement said, adding that the number of illegal settlements and military bases reached 645 by the end of 2025. The total includes 151 illegal settlements, 350 settlement outposts and 144 other sites.

Official figures show that the number of Israeli occupiers in the West Bank reached about 778,567 by the end of 2024, with 42.8% concentrated in occupied East Jerusalem.

The bureau said Israeli authorities seized more than 5,571 dunams (1,377 acres) of Palestinian land in 2025 through seizure orders, expropriation and declarations of “state land.”

It also documented more than 61,000 attacks by Israeli forces and occupiers in the West Bank between 2022 and 2025, which led to the uprooting and bulldozing of more than 81,000 trees, most of them olive trees.

Israeli authorities continue to impose strict restrictions on Palestinians through about 900 military checkpoints and gates across the West Bank, limiting residents’ movement and blocking access to large areas of agricultural and grazing land, the bureau said.

In Gaza, the bureau said Israel’s war has completely destroyed more than 102,000 buildings and fully or partially damaged more than 330,000 housing units, along with widespread destruction of infrastructure, health facilities and schools according to Anadolu.

The Israeli army has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 172,000 others in a two-year offensive on Gaza since October 2023.

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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Palestinian Saher Alghorra Wins Pullitzer

CrossFireArabia
May 10, 2026

Palestinian photographer Saher Alghorra has secured the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for his poignant documentation of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Alghorra, a contributor to the New York Times, won for a series that Pulitzer Administrator Marjorie Miller described as “haunting” and “sensitive.”

The images illustrated the starvation and destruction resulting from Israel’s genocide in Gaza since October 2023.

Miller underscored the importance of independent journalism amid escalating obstacles.

In addition to the Pulitzer, Alghorra won the first prize for war photography at the 32nd Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie in France last October.

His award-winning report, “Trapped in Gaza: Between Fire and Famine”, highlighted the reality of life under siege and the plight of civilians caught between bombardment and starvation. TRTWorld

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Ahmad Al Sharif Celebrates His Wedding on a ‘Bulldozer”

CrossFireArabia
May 3, 2026

Ahmad and his bride will never forget their wedding day. It was a joyous occasion because he was married on a bulldozer amidst the ruins of his Sheikh Radwan neighborhood which is part of Gaza City.

Social media websites covered the festive occasion at length, Friday, with him being carried in the mouth of the bulldozer as he danced next to his bride with people cheering him on as Palestinian danced the dabbakeh folklore and traditional song.

The bride Ahmad Al Sharif travelled back with his wife Alaa, from Deir Al Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip. The newly-weds were part of a group wedding of a massive 300 people that was held in that city’s “Dier Al Balah Services Club” and organized by the UAE-based Al Khalifah Humanitarian Corp.

Such happiness can only be displayed in Gaza where the Strip is “starving but happy” according to its people. “I was particularly keen to have part of my wedding on a bulldozer to show the ruins and debris my neighborhood and city has been reduced to by the Israelis,” Al Sharif said.

For him Friday, will be remembered as an ecstatic occasion. The collective wedding began in Deir Al Balah at 1 pm on Friday noon where brides and grooms from all over the Gaza Strip got “hitched” in plush rented out white dresses and black suits and watched by thousands of people.

About 120 couples came from the Radwan, Shujayia, and Rimal areas of Gaza City and the north of the Strip while the rest from central Gaza, Khan Younis and Rafah, the last city being on the southern border with the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt.

Some of the couples also came from their new homes in tent cities hoisted in the months after the Israeli genocide soon after 7 October, 2023 when thousands of people were displaced and chased away through Israeli guns.

The big wedding ceremony lasted till mid-afternoon Asr prayer and all the couples started to move out and go back to where they came from.

“We wanted to get back to our homes before dark,” Al Sharif. “I actually wanted to get back to my neighborhood before sunset to have another party, and boy, what a send that turned out to be.” This was true because of the videos that splashed the Internet.

He surprised everyone by having the party on a bulldozer with his bride sitting next to him; it is him and his bride Alaa that made the news headlines on social media websites as the other couples took their new brides back home without much pomp nor ceremony considering the circumstances.

“I wanted to have a party among the rubbles as a point of defiance and show the Israeli army that they can’t beat our spirit,” he added. “We had a good show, judging from the number of people who came to greet us and join in the festivities,” he added.

Most of the people of Gaza has been reduced to living among the wreckage, debris and in tents. The UN estimates that between 57.5 to 68 million tons of debris clutter the Strip today; and these piles were created by the 100,000 tons of explosives thrown on the enclave by Israel since 7 October, 2023.

The total number of people that have been killed in Gaza stands at 72,600 while over 172,000 have been injured as shown by the Gaza Health Ministry.

Not many married during the genocide of the last two years or so. Young people have been delaying till things become relatively quite, war-wise. Ever since 11 October, 2025, a ceasefire took place in Gaza as backed by US President Donald Trump.

Although the killings and injury continue through the Israeli military, by comparison, they are much lower than when the war on Gaza had been at its highest, and which explains why more and more people are getting married in the enclave.

Marwan Asmar is a writer from Amman and is Chief Editor of crossfirearabia.com