Neirab camp
Neirab camp or Al-Nayrab camp is a Palestinian refugee camp that was set up near the village of Al-Neirab, 13 km from Aleppo, Syria. It was created in 1948–1950 following the Nakba.[1]
It is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria,[2] with a reported number of 23,469 people as of 2024.[1] It is also considered one of the poorest.[3]
History
The camp was created in 1948 to accommodate for Palestinian refugees that fled during the Nakba.[1][4] Originally, the camp consisted of barracks used by allied troops during World War II, but it quickly grew outside of those, due to the number of refugees.[4]
There were plans by the UNRWA to remove the camp in the early 1960s, but those plans didn't come to fruition.[5] In 1988, it was already the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria.[6] In 2010s, the barracks were still seen by some refugees as a symbol of their origins and their struggles, even though most, if not all, of the barracks were destroyed since.[4] The camp was described, around this period, as having "the most abysmal living conditions of all the Palestine refugees camps in Syria", by the UNRWA.[4] The Syrian Air Force engaged in raids inside the camp to target militants there in the early 2010s.[7]
A paramilitary group called Liwa al-Quds was formed with people from the camp during the Syrian civil war and was supportive of Bashar al-Assad.[8] In 2016, the camp was cut from water supply for 80 days.[9] The camp has suffered huge emigration, and most of the Palestinian refugees that manage to cross into Turkey from Syria come from Neirab and the nearby Ein Al-Tal camp.[10]
On 28 September 2025, protests took place in the Neirab camp following the shooting of a Palestinian resident of the camp by members of the General Security Service. During these demonstrations, protestors chanted against the Syrian revolution and the Free Syrian Army.[11]
Population
The population inside and on the surroundings of the camp grew quickly, and was at 13,032 people inside and 11,676 outside in 1988.[6] As of 2019, it had a reported population of around 19,000 people,[8] this number grew to a reported number of 23,469 people as of 2024.[1] The population is mostly Sunni Palestinian.[12] They hail mostly from the upper Galilee areas of the cities of Safdouka, Haifa and Tiberias, and from the villages of al-Tira, Lubya, Tarshiha, Hattin, Kweikat, al-Nahr, Safsaf, al-Tajr, Jish, Ain Ghazal, and others. It is considered to be one of the poorer Palestinian refugee camps in Syria, alongside Ein Al-Tal, which is an offroot of Neirab.[3][13]
Notable people
Neirab camp is the birthplace of the following people:
- Rima Hassan (born 1992), Palestinian–French jurist and member of the European Parliament[14][15][16]
References
- ^ a b c d Zochrot. "ذاكرات – مخيم النيرب". ذاكرات – مخيم النيرب. Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ "NEIRAB CAMP". www.unrwa.org. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
- ^ a b Assaly, Tania (7 May 2014). "Partition: Post-Syrian Society After the Fall of Assad". Public and International Affairs – Research Papers. hdl:10393/31052. Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ a b c d Gabiam, Nell (2011). "Spatializing Identity: The Changing Landscape of Palestinian Refugee Camps". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2130401. ISSN 1556-5068. Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ "Mu'askar and Shu'fat: Retracing the Histories of Two Palestinian Refugee Camps in Jerusalem". Institute for Palestine Studies. p. 51. Archived from the original on 29 January 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ a b Brand, Laurie (1988). "Palestinians in Syria: The Politics of Integration". Middle East Journal. 42 (4): 625. ISSN 0026-3141. JSTOR 4327836. Archived from the original on 3 December 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ Karmon, Ely (2013). "Hamas in Dire Straits". Perspectives on Terrorism. 7 (5): 121. ISSN 2334-3745. JSTOR 26297010.
Hamas is not fighting in Syria and does not have any of its military units present there. The Syrian Air Force conducts raids on camps like al-Husseini, Siniya, Homs, al-Nayrab and Hindarat which house many Palestinian refugees, many of whom support Hamas and other Palestinian organisations.
- ^ a b Mousa, Ashraf (2019). "Palestinians in the Syrian Uprising: the situation on the ground". Syria Studies. 11 (2): 44–62. ISSN 2056-3175. Archived from the original on 12 May 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ "After 80 days of cut-out, running water arrives again to Al-Nayrab Camp houses". actionpal.org.uk. Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ "No way out : the second nakba of Palestinian refugees from Syria escaping to Turkey". search.emarefa.net. p. 35. Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ "Controversial chants | Protests erupt in Al-Nairab Camp in Aleppo during funeral of killed young man - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights". SOHR. 28 September 2025. Retrieved 29 September 2025.
- ^ Cohen, Sam A. (27 August 2014). Future of the Middle East – United Pan-Arab States. Author House. p. 28. ISBN 978-1-4969-3493-2. Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ Rempel, T. "UNRWA and the Palestine refugees: a genealogy of "participatory" development". academic.oup.com. Archived from the original on 23 November 2023. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
- ^ Gendron, Guillaume. "Rima Hassan, la Palestine à cœur et à cris". Libération (in French). Archived from the original on 2 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
- ^ "" Être réfugiée palestinienne, c'est vivre en quête de son identité "". Association France Palestine Solidarité (in French). Archived from the original on 22 April 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.
- ^ "Rima Hassan, la Palestine chevillée au cœur". Le Monde.fr (in French). 14 January 2024. Archived from the original on 1 May 2024. Retrieved 3 May 2024.