Dataset of the Day: Palestinian Refugee Camps

President Obama has made it clear that he intends to get right to work. One of the issues he will have to deal with in the next few weeks is the Israeli Palestinian conflict. After a “22-day offensive against Hamas militants”, a cease fire has held for the past few days and Israel has completed its pull out from Gaza Strip.

Now, the UN must assess the damage done and deliver as much aid as possible to the residents of Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 1,314 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,000 people were injured. Of those, more than 400 children were killed and 2,000 were injured. The United Nations is reporting that as many as 35,000 displaced persons are seeking shelter. Many businesses, schools and other buildings, including 50 UN facilities have been damaged or destroyed.

This will put additional pressure on the already difficult living conditions in Gaza’s refugee camps. Nearly one million Palestinian refugees live in camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Another three million plus live in camps in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Many of these camps lack proper sanitation and infrastructure. Unemployment is high and restrictions placed by the Israeli authorities have worsened the socio-economic conditions. Finder! has datasets for these camps which contain information on the populations over time as well as conditions of the camps.
The map below shows the camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by population in 2008.

Perhaps the most devastating incident during the recent fighting was the shelling of a UN School that was being used as a shelter, killing as many as 40 civilians. This took place in the Jabalya refugee camp, one of the 8 refugee camps in the Gaza Strip. This camp is shown on the map above.

You can look at this map in Maker! or make your own, to learn more about the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian refugee camps.