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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The Women of Jerusalem

CrossFireArabia
August 9, 2026

CROSSFIREARABIA – This painting on the Women of Jerusalem was painted this year, 2026 by Rawan Al Anani. Its made in bright, vivacious colors of women in embroidered dresses. Some are sitting sipping tea at a leisurely pace while others attending the olive tree. All this against a Jerusalem background of homes, mosques and churches which speaks of a rich Palestinian community and a society. The details in the brush stroke speaks of a diversified but integrated.

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A Wedding in Ruin: Israel’s Answer to Happiness!

CrossFireArabia
August 9, 2026

Shattered Dreams: The Bridal Dress Story

By Palestine Information Center

Aya Matran’s morning became like no other. She was to be a bride preparing to put on her white wedding dress and begin a new life. However, In Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, she stood beside her father on the rubble of the home that was supposed to welcome the first days of her married life. She stood in a daze searching through stones and dust of the remains of her dreams buried in an instant by an Israeli airstrike only hours before her wedding.

Nothing remained of the house except piles of concrete and twisted metal. Buried beneath the rubble were her wedding dress, gold jewelry, bridal belongings, and everything the bride and her family spent years working to prepare for. What was meant to be a day of joy became yet another encounter with loss.

Five Hours…

The family had chosen the wedding day on what was thought to be a period of relative calm, hoping the celebration would take place at a time when there would be no bombing. But just five hours before the ceremony, the groom’s family was forced to evacuate the house after receiving a phone call from the Israeli forces. Shortly afterward, an Israeli airstrike targeted the house and completely destroyed it. Everything went up in smoke!

Aya says that everything was ready for the beginning of her new married life. All that remained was for her to put on her wedding dress. Instead, the bombing destroyed everything she had prepared and turned what should have been the happiest night into a painful memory.

She says her dreams were not extravagant. She simply wanted to begin her married life just like other young women. But the war took away her home, her bridal belongings, her personal possessions, and even the wedding dress that remained buried beneath the rubble.

Dad Relives the Memories Among the Ruins

Her father, Shadi Matran, stood beside her, looking at the place that was supposed to be filled with celebration but had instead become a scene of destruction and silence.

He says the family was shocked to learn that the house had been bombed only a few hours before the wedding, after they had completed all the preparations despite the severe economic conditions facing the Gaza Strip.

He adds that his daughter had left almost nothing behind at the family house, as she had already moved all her belongings to her future marital home. But within moments, everything disappeared beneath the rubble.

He explains that returning to the site each day feels like reliving an endless nightmare. From time to time, family members search through the debris, hoping to find anything that might remind them of what once stood there—or anything that can be salvaged from the memory of the home.

Wedding Dress Under The Rubble

Aya says she is no longer asking for much. She simply hopes to recover some of what she lost and retrieve some of the belongings buried beneath the rubble, especially the wedding dress she never had the chance to wear.

She stresses that the war did not merely postpone her wedding. It shattered a beginning she had waited years for and turned happiness in Gaza into a deferred dream, at a time when thousands of Palestinians are experiencing similar losses—the loss of homes, loved ones, and hopes for the future.

A Plea…

The bride’s father concludes by appealing to the international community and humanitarian organizations to work towards ending the war, so that the daughters of Gaza can celebrate their weddings away from continuous bombing and destruction.

In Gaza, the rubble no longer conceals homes alone. It also buries postponed stories, shattered memories, and dreams beneath the concrete. Among them lies a bride’s wedding dress that was waiting to see the light of day, but instead remains a silent witness to a war that did not even leave joy a chance to be complete.

This article was originally written in Arabic and appeared in the Palestinian Information Center. Here it is translated in AI format and appears in crossfirearabia.com