BOOK REVIEW: PALESTINIANS OF SYRIA: THE STORY OF UNENDING SUFFERING

As the atrocities of war continued with an unabated pace throughout 2018, hundreds of Palestinian families living in Syria fell prey to a new tide of forced deportation and displacement, both inside and outside of the embattled Syrian territories. Dozens of families were torn apart; others learned that their relatives were tortured to death in Syria’s mysterious dungeons; scores more breathed their last on their way to fetch bread loafs to feed their starved children or onboard the death boats to Europe, seeking a safe shelter.

At the same time, several families who returned to their shelters and refugee camps after the Syrian government recaptured zones previously held by the different warring militias had been subjected to abject living conditions and simmering crackdowns, both in the northern and southern corners of the ravaged Syrian territories.

Though the number of victims and detainees relatively shrunk back compared to previous years, dozens of Palestinian refugees were pronounced dead in 2018. According to data from the Action Group for Palestinians of Syria (AGPS), as many as 3,911 Palestinian refugees from Syria died of war-related incidents since the outbreak of the bloody conflict in March 2011 until the end of 2018. 1,714 were detained during the same period. In 2018 alone, the warfare took away the lives of 276 Palestinian refugees and led to the incarceration of 16 others.

This report provides thorough data on the daily onslaughts, death toll and number of detainees in war-torn Syria in 2018. It also underscores the crises endured by the Palestinian community in refugee camps across and outside of the Syrian territories.

At the same time, the study provides a detailed account of the violations perpetrated against the Palestinians of Syria on in their quest to seek asylum and on their way to Europe.

The data has been compiled by a team of field reporters, news correspondents, journalists, photographers and researchers.

-MEMO

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