The number of Israelis and Palestinians living in the historical land of Palestine would be equal by the year 2010, according to statistics released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

The statistics report issued on the occasion of the 58th anniversary of the Nakba, or usurpation of Palestine at the hands of Zionist gangs, indicated that the number of Palestinians, who did not leave their lands in 1948 despite the Zionist gangs’ use of force to drive them out, had risen from 154,000 to 1.13 million.

It pointed out that the number of Palestinians in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip was estimated at 3.88 million by mid 2006 and is expected to reach 4.4 million by 2010.

It said that the number of Israelis in the Hebrew state was around 7 million including the Palestinian Arabs who reach around 1.13 million.

The report also noted that Palestinians living in the diaspora reached around 5.1 million most of whom (around 3 million) live in Jordan and the other Arab countries (1.6 million) and the rest were scattered in European and American countries.

Palestinian refugees living in Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian lands reached 2.4 million according to UNRWA records, the report concluded.