Unraveling the Impact of the 2023 Conflict between Israel and Hamas on Short And Mid-Term Population Internal Displacements in the Middle East

Edith Darin , University of Oxford
Douglas R Leasure, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, Department of Sociology, University of Oxford

In the wake of a violent incident, such as the 2023 conflict between Israel and Hamas, accurate estimation of population displacement becomes imperative for orchestrating an effective crisis response. However, this task is beset with challenges stemming from outdated data and the practical difficulties associated with data collection in conflict zones. Our study harnesses Meta's marketing API to gauge population dynamics, with a specific focus on audience sizes on Facebook and Instagram, disaggregated by age, gender, and subnational regions. In addition to providing near-real-time assistance in addressing humanitarian crises, this research extends prior research developed for the Ukraine war by scrutinizing the impact of conflicts on internal migration between countries and utilizes linguistic attributes to further differentiate displacement among various linguistic groups. Furthermore, we suggest a statistical methodology to combine indicators of internal displacement derived from two sources, Facebook and Instagram, thereby creating a more representative picture of the underlying population.

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 Presented in Session 57. Migrant Conflict Chronicles: Displacement Dynamics and Decision Dilemmas