Palestinian population reaches 10.9m

(MENAFN - Arab News) The global Palestinian population reached 10.9 million in 2009 with more than half living outside the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday.

The survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics found some 1.5 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip and about 2.5 million are in the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem.

Another 1.25 million reside inside Israel and are the descendants of those Palestinians who did not flee or were not driven out during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed the creation of the Jewish state.

Some 3.24 million Palestinians live in Jordan, another 1.78 million are in other Arab countries and around 618,000 Palestinians in other countries.

From 1997 to 2007, the total fertility rate in the Palestinian territories declined from 6.0 to 4.6, with an average of 4.1 births in the West Bank and 5.3 in the Gaza Strip, the report said.

Israel's total population is nearing 7.5 million of which 5.5 million are Jewish, according to government figures released in September.

Meanwhile, a convoy trying to take aid to Gaza headed back to Syria from Jordan on Tuesday after Egypt refused it permission to travel via the Red Sea insisting it pass through the Mediterranean, organizers said.

"We are on our way to Syria's (Mediterranean) port of Latakia. We are scheduled to leave Latakia for El-Arish in Egypt on Wednesday," said Zaher Birawi, spokesman for the organizers.

"We hope that the Egyptian authorities guarantee our safety and protect us from the Israelis, who might try to stop us in the sea. We don't trust Israel."

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial News (MENAFN).
Link: http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093292544&src=NLEN.