Located south of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, it was first settled in 1948 at an initiative of the ICRC, with the aim of accommodating Palestinian refugees who were displaced from their homes after the Nakba of 1948, by accommodating them in tents that, over the years, turned into concrete and tin houses.

The area of ​​the camp when it was established was about 1 km2, but with the increase in the population and the expansion of housing outside the camp, its area is now estimated at about 2 km2.

Like many Palestinian camps in Lebanon, the camp witnessed a long history of violent battles, especially during the 1975-1992 Lebanese Civil War, the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the War of Camps 1985-1987.

The outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011, has led to the displacement of hundreds of Syrian and Palestinian-Syrian families to the camp. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2017, under the supervision of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, the number of residents who lived in the camp until December 2017, reached 18,351 individuals including 8,219 Palestinian refugees from Lebanon (44.8%), 687 Palestinian refugees from Syria (3.7%), 528 Lebanese (2.9%), 8,790 Syrian refugees (47%), and 126 of different nationalities (0.7%). ).

The camp residents suffer from water scarcity, overcrowding, deteriorating infrastructure, especially the water drainage network, and narrow roads, which have turned into small alleyways. Indiscriminate power cables are also widely spread, causing dozens of camp residents to be electrocuted, especially in the winter when water overflows and floods the camp’s alleys. Poverty and unemployment rates are high in the camp, especially with the economic collapse that the country has been witnessing for years. Like the rest of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Palestinian residents of the camp are prevented from practicing dozens of professions, and are also prevented from building or renovating.