Legal briefing on the rights of stateless Palestinians in the UK September 2025 Israeli actions and obstruction, which leaves many Palestinians unable to access assistance, protection, or durable solutions from either UNRWA or UNCCP.12 It is estimated that there are over 8 million Palestinian refugees worldwide.13 The UN reports that 5.9 million of these are considered ‘Palestine refugees’, referring to persons ‘who, as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, were displaced from that part of Mandate Palestine which became Israel, and who have been unable to return there’. UNRWA services are also available to ‘displaced persons’, namely those who ‘have been displaced from the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and have been unable to return there’, and to the descendants of both of these categories.14 UNRWA operates in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, and does not provide assistance outside these areas of operation. The distinction between Palestinian refugees who fall into one of the above categories (and are thus eligible for UNRWA assistance) and those who do not, is relevant to the application of the Refugee Convention, as will be discussed Section 2. In addition to the need for protection as refugees, Palestinians who have not acquired the nationality of another country should be considered stateless under the 1954 Convention (as outlined in Section 1.3). However, the legal status of Palestinians and their ability to access ID and travel documents, as well as naturalisation, will differ depending on their current and/or former country/ies of residence. For further details, see ENS and BADIL, Palestinians and the Search for Protection as Refugees and Stateless Persons, or the resources in Annex I of this briefing. The return of Palestinians to their homes remains obstructed due to Israeli policies and practices that perpetuate systemic discrimination and forced displacement.15 In addition, many Palestinians living outside of the oPt,16 both those who are already recognised as ‘Palestine refugees’ and ‘displaced persons’ and those who are not, face various forms of discrimination, persecution, and insecurity, including statelessness. The situation for Palestinians residing in the West Bank and Gaza has deteriorated significantly in recent years due to forced starvation, occupation, and genocidal acts carried out by the Israeli regime.17 12 See UNRWA’s ‘Situation Reports on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem’, available at: https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports; UK Home Office, Country Policy and Information Note: Humanitarian Situation in Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territories (November 2024) p 51; UNRWA, Annual Operational Report 2024 (15 July 2025); Asylos, Lebanon: Stateless Palestinians (2023); Asylos, Palestine (Gaza): United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) 1 August – 24 September 2024 (2024). 13 In this briefing, the term ‘Palestinian refugee’ is used as an umbrella term, referring to all refugees of Palestinian origin who have been, and continue to be, externally displaced (and their descendants). For further understanding of this term, see BADIL, Survey 2019-2021 (fn 5), p. xiii: ‘the term Palestinian refugees refers to all those Palestinians who have become (and continue to be) externally displaced (1948 refugees, outside the area that became Israel, and with regard to 1967 displaced persons, outside what became the oPt) in the context of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as their descendants.’ The same survey cites 9.17 million forcibly displaced Palestinians worldwide, out of which approximately 8.36 million are refugee (p xvii). See also BADIL, ‘77 Years of Ongoing Nakba’ (n 4), which places the number of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) at approximately 9.76 million. 14 UNRWA, Operational Report 2024 (2025) p 3; UNHCR, Guidelines on International Protection No. 13: Applicability of Article 1D of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to Palestinian Refugees, HCR/GIP/17/13 (December 2017) para 8. UNRWA’s mandate extends to persons displaced in the context of the 1967 War in accordance with UNGA, Resolution 2252 (ES-V) (Humanitarian Assistance) (4 July 1967). 15 See BADIL, Forced Population Transfer: The Case of Palestine — Denial of Reparations, Working Paper No. 22 (BADIL, 2018) 27 – 33. 16 In this briefing, unless otherwise stated, ‘oPt’ refers to Gaza and the West Bank. While we recognise that East Jerusalem is part of the occupied Palestinian territories under international law, for the purposes of this briefing, it is treated as a separate category due to the different legal status granted to Palestinians residing there. 17 International Court of Justice (ICJ), Order of 26 January 2024, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa vs Israel); UN Human Rights Council, Commission of Inquiry: Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, A/HRC/60/CRP.3 (16 September 2025); UNRWA, Situation Report #179 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West 5