Newsday · Melville, New York · 17 June 1967
CP-1967-024
Jordan Refugees Put at 200,000
United Press International, Allenby Bridge, Jordan
Transcribed from the clipping
“Allenby Bridge, Jordan (UPI)—The number of Palestinian refugees who have fled from Israeli-captured western Jordan since last week’s fighting is now believed to be about 200,000, preliminary results of the first head count showed yesterday. The final figure was to be announced today.
It is substantially higher than the 150,000 estimate issued earlier by the Jordanian government and the 100,000 estimate compiled by UN Relief and Works Agency.
The count began early yesterday as dozens of teams organized by the government and UNRWA moved into towns, villages and refugee camps eastward from the Jordan River which now forms the Jordan-Israel truce line… In this neighboring Arab nation, new refugees were seen crossing the Jordan River by the hundreds yesterday at the wrecked Allenby Bridge, made passable with wooden boards across the collapsed center part.
Men and women carrying babies, small children and bundles of clothing and blankets scrambled down the steep concrete bed of the shattered bridge. They were met by crowds of anxious relatives. Israeli soldiers on the west bank made no attempt to halt fleeing refugees, but watched carefully to stop any trying to come in their direction.
Israeli authorities were making it easy for refugees to leave by busing them to the bridge. The first attempt to bring injured Jordanian prisoners of war from the Israeli-captured west bank failed yesterday. Israel cancelled the plan without explanation.”
Context added by this archive
Two hundred thousand, counted, twelve days after the war. The mechanism is in one sentence: the soldiers made no attempt to halt the refugees leaving, watched carefully to stop anyone coming the other way, and the authorities were busing people to the bridge. The photographs are captioned as help, and the caption uses the words Israeli occupation and unoccupied territory.
Cite this clipping
"Jordan Refugees Put at 200,000," Newsday, 17 June 1967, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1967-024. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1967-024
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1967-024.
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