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.^{[ citation needed ]} 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

1. Zochrot. "ذاكرات – مخيم النيرب". ذاكرات – مخيم النيرب. Archived from the original on 6 May 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
2. "NEIRAB CAMP". www.unrwa.org. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. "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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. "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.
10. "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.
11. "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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. "" 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.
16. "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.

36°10′24″N37°13′14″E / 36.1733093°N 37.2204351°E / 36.1733093; 37.2204351