Amid ongoing clashes between Israel and Iran, ordinary citizens are compelled to leave their homes. Former U.S. President Donald Trump has even suggested that Iranians vacate Tehran for their safety, which is currently home to over ten million residents.
Prior Waves of Displacement in Israel
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) highlights that from 2011 to 2022, Israel experienced approximately 230,000 internal displacements due to conflict and violence, impacting at least 260,000 people. The figures peaked in 2023, with 200,000 displacements, lessening to 68,000 in 2024.
The Stark Reality of Middle Eastern Displacement
According to the Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID 2025), several Middle Eastern countries faced significant internal displacement due to conflict and instability in 2024.
In Syria, over 7.4 million people are internally displaced, experiencing around 700,000 displacements annually. Yemen has about 4.8 million displaced individuals. In long-strife affected regions like Palestine and Lebanon, there were 2.03 million and 990,000 displaced individuals in 2024, respectively.
Source: aajtak
Global Issue, Critical in the Middle East
The Middle East constitutes a major part of the global displacement narrative caused by conflict and violence in 2024. Notably, Syria and Yemen are among the top five countries worldwide with the highest number of internally displaced populations in 2024.
Source: aajtak
Globally, 20.1 million displacements occurred due to conflict and violence in 2024. By the year's end, 83.4 million people were internally displaced, a 106% increase compared to 2015, when the total was 40.5 million.
